


Fluency

by Unda



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Arranged Marriage, Gore, Language Barrier, M/M, Magical Realism, Political Drama, Princes, royal pains in the ass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 21:43:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 271,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2827091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unda/pseuds/Unda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[PROBABLY PERMANENT HIATUS PLEASE DON'T ASK FOR MORE] A political marriage between two princes is made harder by a language barrier and two stubborn idiots. But even if they move past it there are others who aren't so happy with their union. Zosan, an expansion of a few of my 500 series drabbles (still readable in that series but expanded here)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sanji had never wanted to marry this Zoro bastard, it was a whole political thing. The kingdom of Baratie needed stronger alliances and their immediate neighbours were all either allied against them or were already allies with Baratie. The country of Shimotsuki was very far away, a good months travel time and until a few months ago Sanji had barely even heard of the place.

His father had been adamant on the issue of marriage though, it would unite their lands permanently. Shimotsuki were a nation of warriors but they lacked proper resources of food production which limited their military powers. Baratie on the other hand was a plentiful land but rife with criminals and other types unsuited for organised military combat. It wasn't that their people weren't skilled or well trained, those countries who had tried to invade Baratie had found that out to their peril. Baratans were a stubborn and ill organised people who specialised in defending what was theirs, they were thorough masters of guerilla warfare. With the powers of their cultures and lands combined they could become a strong force.

All of that though seemed to fail to take into account that both parties in this marriage were male, would produce no natural heirs and had never even met before their wedding. Their wedding of course was a very delicate affair, Sanji had to do his part as was customary, vowing before god to honour his partner and hold their vows true etc. etc, but Zoro's people were all staunch atheists and could not be persuaded to swear anything to any god. Their whole ceremony was an uncomfortable mishmash of cultures and traditions that proved highly cringeworthy for him and his new husband.

It was decided by Sanji's father the King and Zoro's father the Emperor that they would live for five months in one country and five months in the other, with the two months travel in between that more or less equated to Zoro spending half of their first married year away from his family, not a position that Sanji envies but one he will have to mirror afterwards

At Sanji's side is his translator Usopp and at Zoro's side was his translator Robin. That was another hitch in their marriage, neither of them spoke each other's language. Luckily for Sanji he grew up as good friends with Usopp so he trusts the man's judgement on Zoro.

The four of them are alone together for the first time, Zoro and Robin on one side of the table, both stoic and impossible to read, Sanji and Usopp on the other.

Robin looks at Zoro for a moment before trying a few languages before catching onto one that Usopp recognises, Sanji unfortunately doesn't recognise it and it seems that Zoro doesn't either. The two of them converse briefly and smile at their respective royalty, Zoro looks ill at ease with Robin's smile.

"We've decided we're going to work together to teach you each other's languages! Unless it's an exceptional circumstance we're not going to translate for you, we're going to tell you what you should say and you say it. That way you'll learn and bond with each other." Usopp chirps happily.

Sanji gawps in shock at Usopp. Zoro's expression twists into a scowl, so Sanji doesn't have to be a genius to work out that Robin just told him the same thing.

There is no way that this is going to work.


	2. Chapter 2

Zoro hates this goddamn country, the weather is too cold and it rains frequently. Oh, and he's married to the stupid prince of the stupid place.

"I can't believe that you won't translate for us." Zoro accuses Robin flatly.

"Yes you can." Robin says, filing her nails and not even looking up at Zoro.

"Okay, I can believe it, it's just the sort of shit you'd pull. But what exactly are you hoping to achieve by doing it?" Zoro questions. It's unlike Robin to do something without a motive, so she must be planning something.

"Maybe it'll put you in a position of common ground with him, maybe you'll have to think before you speak. Or maybe I just like seeing you squirm, we may never know." Robin smirks at him. Zoro scowls at her but Robin has long since been immune to his glares. She just flicks her dark hair over her shoulder and blows on her fingernails.

"How about translating this for me? 'Can you believe the shit these translators are pulling?' I'll even go and say it to him myself, just like you want." Zoro grumbles.

Robin smiles and reaches forward onto the table. She pulls a pad of paper towards her and carefully writes something down before handing it to Zoro.

Zoro stares at the paper. Even the letters that this country uses are unfamiliar to him, but Robin has helpfully phonetically translated his words below. If he's going to communicate with this Sanji bastard it seems like he's going to have to do it the hard way.

The blonde's language is all understated sounds, slithering from one sound to the next, soft sounds made in the back of the throat that elude Zoro but sound so easy coming from Robin. He has to try the sentence several times before he gets something that sounds even recognisably like Robin's words.

"Thanks for being so unhelpful." Zoro mutters, taking the paper with him and stalking away from the smirking Robin and back inside the building where Sanji and his useless translator are sitting. He stops before the blonde prince who looks up at him in surprise. The blonde and his translator are playing cards. The prissy prince puts his cards face down and straightens up to look at Zoro with some level of curiosity.

Zoro focuses on the paper before him and repeats what Robin taught him.

Sanji and his translator look puzzled before the long nosed translator bursts into hysterical laughter. The two of them converse quickly before Sanji also sniggers.

"What did I just say that was so funny?" Zoro demands, glaring at Usopp.

"I think you pissed Robin off, she made you say 'I need to learn that being grumpy at my translator will get me nowhere'" Usopp giggles, trying to contain his laughter enough to speak.

"ROBIN!" Zoro snarls, stalking back out to her with Sanji and Usopp's laughter chasing him.


	3. Chapter 3

Sanji leans out of the balcony and watches his husband run through sword stances, practicing by attacking, parrying and defending against an imaginary opponent. It's pleasantly warm out today and Sanji is loosely dressed. Zoro however is bundled up far more than he should be for a work out. He knows that Zoro's country is warmer than Sanji's own, so he supposes that the marimo prince is having trouble adjusting.

He watches Zoro for a few moments. It's not been as bad as he thought living with him. The two of them don't share a room yet, though he knows that eventually questions will be asked if they don't, but for now it's comfortable. The pair of them are getting to know each other at a slow pace, slowed down by Robin and Usopp's refusal to outright translate for them and instead giving them notes with the correct words in the other's language. The eventual aim is for them both to become bilingual and each of them gets a day in turn where they can speak their own language and the other has to bend to speaking that one, the next day the languages are reversed.

Sanji decides to go down there and talk to Zoro yet no matter how hard he looks he cannot find Robin or Usopp anywhere to assist him. So when he enters the courtyard where Zoro is practicing he does so alone. Zoro pauses after a particularly fast and skilled sword strike to look at Sanji.

"Good morning." Zoro says in his own language to Sanji. Sanji frowns a little, Zoro's language still sounds so harsh and guttural to him. Even when Zoro speaks Sanji's language he adds edges to the words where there should be none and sharp clipped syllables where the words should flow.

"Morning." Sanji responds with a nod. He opens his mouth to talk but realises that with no Robin or Usopp he doesn't have anyone to hand him a script.

"Where... where Robin and Usopp?" Sanji tries, knowing that the sentence is off somehow.

"Where are Robin and Usopp." Zoro corrects him. Sanji nods, shit yeah, Zoro's language has lots of additional words needed to make it complete whereas Sanji's runs a lot on context, though it has far more conjugations of words than Zoro's does.

"They're out at the-" Zoro says and then his sentence goes somewhere where Sanji has no idea what he's saying.

"What?" Sanji asks. Zoro repeats himself but it's still nonsense to Sanji. Shit, he doesn't know these words.

"The one outside shopping place for shopping." Zoro says unevenly in Sanji's language, again adding in words that he doesn't need.

"Ohhh, the market." Sanji groans, picking out the word in Zoro's language. He did know that but he hasn't used the word in over a week and now it's apparently fallen out of his head.

Zoro corrects his pronunciation for a moment but the other man smiles when Sanji gets it. Just seeing it makes Sanji smile back. Zoro's so harsh looking, so serious and sharp that Sanji often forgets just how gentle his smile really is when he does it.

"So... just... us." Sanji says, gesturing between them.

"Yes, we're alone." the prince answers with a nod. Sanji nods as well rather dumbly. He's not sure that he and Zoro have ever talked this long without Robin and Usopp. Most of their conversations so far have been practical, asking for things or the basics of conversation like being forced to discuss the weather, which is boring because Zoro always complains that it's too damn cold. He should really try to talk to Zoro about more than that though, limited though his language skills are.

"You're training. You train... big, no uh... lots." Sanji corrects himself quickly.

"I have to. It's good for the-" And then Zoro goes off again into words that Sanji doesn't know.

"Good for your what?" the blonde asks in confusion. Zoro repeats but Sanji still shakes his head.

"For... indoors in... in here." Zoro says, trying to clarify in Sanji's language now rather than his own. Zoro reaches over and taps Sanji in the middle of his chest.

"For your heart?" Sanji guesses with a frown. Zoro gives him a look of confusion so Sanji holds his hand over his heart and mimics the sound of a heartbeat.

"Oh. No. Not that." Zoro says in his own language. He frowns and switches to Sanji's again.

"It's your breath after you... after your..." Zoro trails off, snapping his fingers as he searches for the word before giving up and sliding a finger across his throat like getting his throat slit.

"Your breath after... after death? Oh! Your soul. Training is good for your soul. Huh... breath after death, that's actually a pretty poetic way of putting it Zoro." Sanji muses. He didn't know that Zoro thought about things in that kind of way.

"Yes, your soul. But... you fight too. It's not just us." Zoro insists, gesturing to Sanji.

"Yes. But we... not the same. Not like you." Sanji explains. For his people fighting is a valuable skill, their army is strong after all, but... they're not a warrior culture like Zoro's. Fighting is for a purpose, not a way of life.

He looks at Zoro for a few long moments. The man is strong and sturdy, muscled and exotic in a way that Sanji has to admit he finds attractive. Who Zoro is must be honed by his culture though, and Sanji should be adopting Zoro's culture at least a little. It's his culture too now after all. Plus it might be a way for the two of them to become a little closer.

"Let me train with you." Sanji says, a perfect sentence in Zoro's language and one that he managed to make all by himself. He's never heard that sentence before and yet he made it all on his own. He's a little bit proud of himself. Zoro looks surprised for a second before he grins, both pleased and challenging.

"You want to fight for fun? You're on." Zoro grins, unsheathing a third sword and putting it between his teeth.

"On what?" Sanji blinks in confusion.

"Let's do it." Zoro rephrases. Oh, it must be an idiom of some kind.

Still, Zoro's agreed to sparring with him. Sanji beams and throws his light jacket onto a bench and squares off against Zoro, the other man's armed stance against Sanji's unarmed fighting style. He half expects Zoro to mock him for being unarmed or to suggest that it's not fair to fight an unarmed man, but Zoro doesn't belittle him like that.

The two of them move around each other, shifting stances to defend and create the best opening for themselves. It takes almost a minute for one of them to attack but it's Sanji who makes the move. He flicks out a fast kick that Zoro catches with his blades, repelling Sanji with force that makes Sanji have to actually work to maintain his balance. He grins, alright, Zoro is good at this.

Zoro attacks, his movements graceful and surprisingly light footed for such a tall and broad man. His strikes are strong but Sanji is flexible enough to dance out of their way and exploit Zoro's weaknesses. Zoro is fast though. Really fast. Zoro cuts into Sanji's shirt and gets him in the ribs with the back of a different blade before too long. Sanji gets a few strong hits into Zoro that will surely leave the other man with bruises.

Their round breaks up into several fights with the two of them having rather scattered and mistranslated conversations between, where the two of them have to keep switching languages in an effort to explain words that they don't know. After the third round Zoro is catching his breath and staring at Sanji.

"You're so-" Zoro says but the last word Sanji doesn't understand.

"Sorry? I don't know that word." he apologies.

Zoro shakes his head and sheathes his swords. He comes close to Sanji and gestures for Sanji to stand on one foot by doing it himself. The blonde is confused but he goes along with it. Zoro bends down and wraps his hand around the back of Sanji's ankle. Sanji is halfway into thinking that this is some strange foreign custom when Zoro starts to pull Sanji's leg up, keeping it straight the whole time until Sanji's leg is at a 90 degree angle to his body, right out in front of him. Zoro pauses and pokes Sanji in the shoulder to no effect. Zoro smiles slightly and then continues pushing Sanji's heel up, watching the blonde carefully. It occurs to Sanji that Zoro is testing how flexible he is.

"Oh! Like this?" Sanji says, catching on and straightening his leg right up above his head in a perfect vertical split. Zoro's smile cracks open, brightening his whole face up and making him look handsome all over again. Zoro stares at him in wonder and shoves softly at Sanji a few times, testing his balance but of course Sanji is as stable as a rock. Zoro murmurs a few things in his own language, more to himself than to Sanji, but the tone of awe in his voice makes the blonde flush red.

If they're comparing their strengths then Sanji has something that he wants to see. He returns to standing normally and then carefully reaches for Zoro's swords. The other prince gets the idea and removes them from his belt, handing all but the white one over to him. One of the swords is unbelievably heavy, Sanji has no idea how Zoro is able to hold it for so long or move it so fast. No wonder his strikes are that powerful. The other one feels light and mysteriously warm to the touch. He goes to unsheathe it to inspect the blade but Zoro stops him with a worried look, he shakes his head and says something that Sanji doesn't understand.

"They're beautiful, thank you." Sanji says softly in his own language as he hands them back.

"We're back, I hope you two weren't fighting." Robin says in Zoro's language as she and Usopp walk into the courtyard with shopping in their arms. Sanji finds himself surprised, he didn't think that the two of them had been sparring and talking for so long, time must have really got away from him.

"Oh, Robin. I need-" Zoro starts and dashes to Robin. He breaks out in a quick and quiet native burst of his own language, his words more complex than those that he uses with Sanji. He can only catch a few words of what Zoro is saying but Robin's expression seems surprised, as does Usopp's.

"Usopp, what's he saying?" Sanji asks quietly, walking to his friend for clarification.

"Uh... well. Zoro's asking Robin to translate something into our language for him, he wants to tell you something but... well Robin and Zoro are debating on whether or not it'd offend you. You know Zoro's people are very... abrupt and blunt with their words. Zoro's suddenly started getting worried that what he wanted to say won't go down well. I don't think... hold on." Usopp says and shakes his head before switching into Zoro's language.

"He won't be. It's fine." Usopp reassures Zoro in his own language.

Robin smiles coyly and writes something down on paper for Zoro, it seems to be a lot. As Zoro tells her what to write Sanji can catch the occasional word, though Zoro isn't trying to be loud or clear enough for Sanji to hear.

"We'll be inside, I'll let you talk." Robin says with a smile and she and Usopp disappear with Usopp shooting Sanji a lingering curious glance, as if he doesn't want to leave and would rather watch this play out.

Zoro frowns in concentration at the paper and walks up to Sanji, his mouth silently moving along with a few words. Sanji waits in burning curiosity and has half a mind to snatch the paper out of Zoro's hands to read it himself. Zoro starts to speak in Sanji's native language, his words a little uneven but sounding entirely sincere.

"Sanji. You're an excellent warrior, I like the challenge and we should do this again." Zoro says, making Sanji grin.

"You should teach me to be as flexible and balanced as you are. Maybe I can teach you how to be stronger in return." Zoro continues. Sanji laughs and rolls his eyes a little, yeah, that's the possibly offensive straightforwardness right there.

"I am proud to-" Zoro cuts himself off and Sanji can't help but notice that the other man is going a little red.

Zoro avoids Sanji's eyes and shoves his hands and his notes in his pocket and repeats and finishes his sentence, addressing his words to Sanji's shoes.

"I am proud to be yours." Zoro mumbles. Even his ears are red now.

"Oh." Sanji breathes in shock, his heart pounding hard in his chest all of a sudden.

Zoro looks up at him warily whilst Sanji just stares in shock at him. He realises that the other man is regretting his words when he sees him tense up and turn even redder.

"Forget." Zoro mutters in Sanji's language and moves to get past him.

"No! Wait." Sanji says quickly in Zoro's language, catching his arm as Zoro goes. God, he's been rude. Zoro put a whole speech together like that and spoke it in Sanji's own tongue and he's just stared at the man without saying anything.

"I'm honored too." He says softly and with that Zoro relaxes in Sanji's hold.

To Sanji's surprise he means it. He doesn't really like Zoro. His grumpy personality and laziness outside of his training grate on Sanji to no end at times, but the man has honor and strength and Sanji likes and respects that. But when he sees Zoro fight he feels like he's really seeing who the other man is and despite the fact that Sanji would have never chosen Zoro for himself he can't bring himself to feel like this was a mistake or a mismatched pairing even though it's a political marriage.

Zoro shifts uneasily after a second and Sanji starts to think that he's perhaps been holding onto the other man for too long. He realises that his assumption about Zoro's agitation was probably wrong when the other man leans in and presses the quickest and most innocent kiss to Sanji's lips before darting back into his own space. This time Zoro goes really red and he ducks his head in embarrassment.

"Goodbye." Zoro says hastily and rushes inside, not making eye contact with Sanji, leaving the blonde alone in the courtyard.

Sanji just stares at the door that Zoro left through. He touches his lips with his fingertips and feels butterflies explode in his stomach.


	4. Chapter 4

Sanji still doesn't know what to make of the kiss, Zoro hasn't brought it up since and it could well be a platonic cultural thing. It could be a mark of respect or sincerity or... or something. He could bring it up with Usopp or Robin, he could ask what it means. In all honesty though he's a little scared to. He doesn't know how he'll feel if he's told that it is something platonic or how he'll feel if he's told that it's something romantic.

Until he knows what he thinks and what he wants. He's married to Zoro but they both know that it wasn't because they loved each other. Hell, until the day that they had their ceremony the pair of them hadn't even met. But... he's grown to like Zoro a little. He's really fucking weird, even with the language barrier aside he's got to admit that. Some things are cultural, such as why Zoro is so obsessive about his fighting training, but some are just Zoro. Excessive sword practice, cultural. Unreasonable amounts of naps in awkward places, just Zoro being odd.

Sanji pauses at Zoro's open door and watches as the half naked man paints black goop onto his upper body.

That's weird.

He goes off to ask Robin where on the weirdness scale this lies, cultural or Zoro.

He gets the idea that it's cultural somehow when he finds Robin in her room painting up her arms.

"Why are you and Zoro drawing all over yourselves?" Sanji asks after a few long moments.

"There's an official royal banquet tomorrow and a ball with your extended royal family. It's an important meeting." Robin says calmly and paints a vine up her arm.

"That... didn't really answer my question." Sanji says after a few long moments where Robin does not elaborate.

"In our country formal events require formal dress which, as in your country, displays your status. In our culture we have rulers and royalty obviously, but those titles are gained through victory. If Zoro was not a capable warrior then he would not be a prince, he would be just a regular citizen." Robin explains and sets her arm straight on her vanity table and drops her paintbrush into the pot of thick ink.

"Okay..." Sanji says slowly, sitting down on a chair nearby.

"The pattern is distinct for each person, in my case its vines and flowers. Each flower signifies a victory that I have won, though these marks are taken away if I lose one. So you can see from my arm that I am twenty victories in the positive, though obviously I have won far more. This is why these are painted on rather than tattooed, they are dynamic." Robin answers, pointing to the delicate flowers.

"Those look a little hard to paint, I could help you with the detail of some of those at the back of your arm if you like?" Sanji offers helpfully.

Robin's head snaps up and her eyes are wide in shock. Sanji... thinks that he's done something wrong. Robin's face relaxes but she still looks a little unsettled.

"I said something wrong didn't I?" Sanji asks slowly.

"That's more the kind of thing that you'd offer to someone you're married to. Though... it could be an interesting cultural exchange for you and Zoro. Go ask him." Robin smiles sweetly, though Sanji can see a bit of colour in her cheeks.

Sanji mumbles, nods and makes his excuses before backing out of her room and feeling like an ass. But when he passes Zoro's room again he can't help but peek in. Zoro's right arm is covered in ink and Sanji desperately wants to see the detail. He only realises that he's been staring when he realises that Zoro is looking right back at him, his brush unmoving and not touching his skin.

"Uh... I'll go if you want. Sorry for staring." Sanji says quickly.

"No reason to be sorry with apologies." Zoro shrugs, overusing words again. Sanji smiles a little. He should be correcting Zoro but the habit is endearing.

"Can I see?" He asks hopefully. Zoro nods and so Sanji makes his way into Zoro's bedroom and sits down with him.

Zoro doesn't really do chairs, his bedroom is very traditional with the bed extremely low to the floor and a lot of his room incredibly basic indeed. Zoro's culture doesn't really do much in the way of opulence and Sanji admits that he quite likes the change.

"Robin said that these were for victories." Sanji says quietly, leaning in and looking at the marks on Zoro's arm. They're bands in sets of three, some fully shaded and some just outlines.

"I didn't plan the design well, I'm not good with this." Zoro sighs in his own language and though it takes a moment for Sanji's mental language filter to switch he gets all of what Zoro says.

"How?" He asks, in Zoro's language this time.

"I need thirty five. These are too big and I am left." Zoro says, gesturing to his nearly full right arm which only has fifteen bands on it.

Sanji frowns, he doesn't understand what Zoro means by he is left. Not until he realises that Zoro is holding the brush in his left hand. Zoro is left handed.

"Is wrong to help?" Sanji asks, his question clunky and lacking the finesse that it would in his own language. He knows that Zoro's language is more colourful than his own but Sanji's does more with tone of voice and inflection than Zoro's does and he still finds himself at a loss to communicate the complexity of his meaning. His words sound childish in construction whilst Zoro explains too much and sounds too monotone. They can about understand each other for the most part but the nuances will take years to come together to full fluency.

He wants to know if it's inappropriate for him to offer as it apparently was for him to offer to Robin. Robin said that it was the kind of thing that married people do, but he and Zoro are married. But by that logic having sex is something that married people do and they're not doing that. Hell, Sanji doesn't even know if Zoro kissing him that one time meant anything. He wants to know if Zoro will be offended or think that he's being forward.

"Are you offering?" Zoro asks him with a tilt of his head and an intense look.

"Do you want me to?" Sanji counters.

Zoro smiles after a moment, like Sanji has just beat him in some challenging dare and he's impressed. He hands the brush and ink over to Sanji and shuffles so that his bare arm is facing Sanji whilst being careful not to smudge his right.

Sanji bites the end of the brush. He can do another fifteen on the other arm to make it symmetrical to Zoro's right arm and then put the others across his body, perhaps two on each side of his chest and one down the middle?

"Where can I..." Sanji trails off, not knowing the word for paint in Zoro's language. He switches back to his own and says the word to which Zoro responds with his word for paint, it's how they exchange vocabulary.

"Anywhere. But they have to be seen." Zoro replies with a quirk of his eyebrows. Right, not on Zoro's chest unless he wants Zoro to be shirtless in public. Sanji swallows and looks at Zoro's chest. It's a very nice chest and... and he is getting off of track. Zoro's arm it is, maybe he can put the last five on Zoro's neck or the side of his face.

He paints slowly and carefully, comparing each mark that he makes to the one on Zoro's other arm. Zoro keeps having to shift position to stop his arm going numb, eventually he settles for leaning in Sanji's lap, his head against Sanji's leg and his eyes half lidded. His arm is relaxed and heavy in Sanji's touch. Zoro's almost in a trance and Sanji feels a little zoned out himself.

He stares at the blank rings on Zoro's both arms, they're in the middle of the solid rings on either side of the sets of three. They seem uncomfortably blank, even if the filled in ones on either are solid black. He runs a finger carefully inside of one.

"Can I... paint these?" Sanji fumbles in Zoro's language. He wants to ask about patterns and suggest designs but his vocabulary is so goddamn limited.

"Paint them in or-" Zoro continues with more words but Sanji doesn't pick up any of them but 'yours'.

"Something you thought up." Zoro rephrases.

"Yeah, that one." Sanji nods in relief.

Zoro sits up a little, propping himself up on one arm and looking Sanji in the eye intently for a few moments.

"You want to do that?" Zoro asks him.

"If... uh... can I? Is it wrong or...?" Sanji asks, worried that he's overstepped again somehow. He hates not knowing enough about Zoro's culture. He's worried that he's doing things where he doesn't understand the implications.

"Why do you want to?" Zoro questions, still giving him that intent look that makes Sanji's skin shiver.

"Because it feels... good? Uh, no. Uh... shit, fucking, fuck I... not wrong. Sorry." Sanji curses, he knows this word, he knows it but for the life of him he can't remember it.

"Good cursing." Zoro grins deviously. One of the first things that they'd taught each other once they'd started to be able to have basic conversations unassisted was their entire swearing and insult vocabulary and Sanji has to admit that Zoro's language is hands down the best at it. He's stopped cursing in his own language entirely, preferring Zoro's own for it by far.

"Thank you. But I mean it feels... ugh." Sanji grumbles, the word still not coming to him.

"It feels right?" Zoro says tentatively.

"Yes, thank you. It feels right." Sanji sighs.

An expression flickers across Zoro's face but Sanji can't quite catch it. He turns and settles his head back into Sanji's lap and holds his arm out to Sanji who takes it cautiously.

"If it feels right then it should be done. I trust you." Zoro says earnestly and Sanji's heart flutters confusingly in his chest. Zoro's just giving him permission to draw in his marks that Zoro had already designed, it shouldn't be a big deal, yet it feels like it is.

He fills Zoro's blank bands with abstract patterns, swirls that echo Sanji's eyebrows, geometric shapes inspired from both of their royal insignias, waves and so on. The detail takes him forever, though the time seems to blend together in a way that makes it not seem all that long at all.

He paints and paints and the more he does the more relaxed he feels and the more relaxed Zoro seems too.

"Do you want the five on your neck or face?" Sanji asks softly, his brush filling in the thick band at the top of Zoro's arm.

"You choose." Zoro replies, his voice a deep rumble as he opens his eyes a little more and looks up into Sanji's eyes.

Sanji places the brush back in the pot and rubs his hands on his trousers making sure that his hands are free of ink. He touches his fingers to Zoro's face, stroking along Zoro's cheekbones and along his cheeks and jaw, just feeling him. Zoro sighs and shuts his eyes. He runs his fingers up and down Zoro's throat, feeling the skin there and running over his skin and rhythmically as he was doing with the brush.

He's starting to get why this is something that you would only do with someone that you're married to. He has his fingers on Zoro's throat and if he wanted to, armed or not, he could kill Zoro right now. But instead he is laying back on Sanji's lap with his eyes shut, entirely trusting. Perhaps it's the feeling of Zoro trusting him this much but he feels the need to just... touch Zoro and be close to him. It's addictive and he can't quite ignore the blooming warmth in his own chest.

He'd been so determined not to feel anything for the angry, rude man that he was forced to marry but... he's really starting to. He doesn't know if it's intense and platonic or the start of something strongly romantic. He doesn't want to think about it. Instead he leans down, his hands still on either side of Zoro's face and kisses the edge of his mouth upside down, just in the same place that Zoro did with him.

He pulls back and Zoro opens his eyes and smiles softly. Zoro says nothing but reaches up and brushes his fingers through Sanji's hair, petting him softly and running along his scalp. The touch makes Sanji shiver slightly.

"Some day you should tell me about these victories you've earned." Sanji says softly in his own language, picking up his paintbrush again. Zoro just hums and shuts his eyes again.

Sanji paints calm confident lines through Zoro's left eyebrow and up his forehead into his hairline. Instead of filling them in he almost crosshatches the inside of them, small thin lines in sets of three. He pauses about the other two, regarding Zoro's face. Zoro's whole face is strong, strong brows and temples, a strong jaw and strong, sharp cheekbones. He dips his brush and paints two bands carefully, one under each of Zoro's cheekbones, exaggerating the shade there and making Zoro look beautifully fierce.

He seals up the bottle and washes his brush, well... Zoro's brush. He cleans up his fingers all without moving Zoro from his lap.

"I have to wash this off before I sleep, so it doesn't... in the night." Zoro says sleepily. There's a word in between doesn't and in but Sanji doesn't know it. He supposes that Zoro must mean something like smudge or smear, something that damages the pattern perhaps.

"When does it stay until?" Sanji asks. He looks at the ink bottle but even the letters of Zoro's language are foreign to him and his reading skills in Zoro's language only extend to the alphabet which in itself is different to Sanji's own. Zoro's not doing much better with his though.

"A week." Zoro answers with a yawn.

"Good. I like it." Sanji replies with a smile and runs his hands through Zoro's hair again.


	5. Chapter 5

Zoro wakes up on his bed and stretches his arms above him with a deep and jaw cracking yawn. When he opens his eyes the dark patterns on his arms swim into view and he simply stares at them for a few minutes. His eyes trace over all of Sanji's designs, the marks that Sanji spent hours putting on him, the patterns that came from his heart and are now all over Zoro's arms and face. His heart burns with a fire inside of his chest and his cheeks heat up. This is the kind of things that they write songs about.

He gets up with a smile still plastered on his face and looks at himself in the mirror. The ink on his face makes him look proud and fearsome. He looks how Sanji has made him look and he couldn't be happier about it. Too bad that the people who'll really get the significance of his marks and Sanji's drawing of them are all in this wing of the palace and not at the feast tonight.

He wanders shirtless into the main room for breakfast to see that it's all already on the table. He really should detour in here some time to see who brings them food, he's always either sleeping in or training and he wants to know what servants are wandering around the place. Thankfully Sanji isn't the pampered prince that Zoro had dreaded him being, he's not big on being waited on and Robin certainly doesn't let anyone do that for her. Usopp is probably the same. Interestingly Sanji's long nosed friend and translator could as easily be from Zoro's country as he is from Baratie. He had one parent from each place which is why he's completely bilingual in both tongues. His father went off to explore the world and battle though so he got left in Baratie and took on more of their culture than that of Zoro's. Zoro hopes that he gets to spend more time with the guy as the years go on because he can see that warrior spirit in Usopp deep down, he just needs to work to bring it out. It's Usopp's journey though, Zoro's not going to do it for him. After all it wouldn't mean anything if he did. But perhaps when they return to Shimotsuki Usopp will start to grow.

Sanji is sat in his chair, his feet pulled up onto the seat and a coffee mug in his hand. If there's one thing that Zoro has learnt it's that Sanji doesn't really speak  _any_  language until after his second cup.

"First, second?" Zoro asks curiously as he sits down.

Sanji frowns for a moment or two.

"Second." He answers and drains the mug and puts it down on the table.

"Your tone was wrong there Zoro. You made that a statement rather than a question so it came across as speaking of time rather than a numerical question." Robin says with her back to Zoro as she looks through their fridge for something.

"Second means two and something in time?" Zoro frowns angrily. Sanji's goddamn words shouldn't have so many meanings, they should just have a new word for something else, it's not that hard.

"Don't worry, eat something shit head." Sanji orders him, shoving a plate of cooked meats and scrambled eggs in Zoro's direction. He doesn't need to be told twice.

Zoro smiles around his fork at the fact that Sanji keeps trying to talk in Zoro's own language. His pronunciation is awful sometimes but he's starting to get some of the sounds that his language doesn't have. It's almost sweet how hard he's trying. When Robin and Usopp refused to directly translate for them at the beginning Zoro predicted that the two of them would speak the barest minimum and refuse to learn much of the other's language, but it's not worked out that way at all. Zoro is perhaps proudest of all that Sanji has taken to cursing completely in Zoro's language with all of the vigor of a natural born citizen of Zoro's country. He swears creatively and with glee, spitting out the most colourful insults and exclamations. When the two of them argue and devolve into name calling Sanji more than holds his own despite his comparatively weak grasp of the language.

"Oh my!" Robin suddenly exclaims, interrupting Zoro's thoughts of Sanji, as she turns around and lands sight on Zoro. Her eyes run over his marks and then snap to the oblivious blonde who is drinking deep from his coffee cup with closed eyes.

"He said he wanted to do it because it felt right, so don't... just don't." Zoro says flatly and stuffs a thick strip of bacon in his mouth.

"Well, okay then. It looks captivating. I'm a little jealous." Robin says with a soft smile and takes her leave.

Sanji looks uneasy and watches Robin go with a worried pinch of his brow. Zoro watches Sanji's eyes roam over his skin and fixate on his filled in bands.

"If you ask if you did anything wrong I will disembowel you with a fork." Zoro says flatly. He's pretty sure that Sanji doesn't get every word but he does get his meaning. Sanji shows him his middle finger and gets up from his seat to retrieve fruit from the side and leave the room. Usopp informed him that this was a physical curse word so the blonde's meaning also gets across just fine.

By early evening Zoro is dressed for the banquet and ball tonight. He's wearing a soft skinned but tough sleeveless black leather jacket lined with silk inside, his trousers are of the same make. Around his waist is a thick green sash from which his three swords hang. It didn't take him more than ten minutes to dress but with a little self consciousness he spends the same amount of time making sure that the rest of him looks just right. He checks that every one of his marks is utterly visible, that his hair isn't sticking up in weird places and that he's not missed any stubble on his chin when he shaved that morning.

"I've never seen you fuss so much over how you look." Robin says with a sly smile. Zoro turns to look at her, he hadn't noticed that she was there, but he stopped tracking her presence years ago when he decided that he could trust her. He's always wary of other people sneaking up on him but Robin he doesn't bother tracking. If Robin ever killed him he'd deserve it for being so thoroughly fooled by her. He doesn't think that will ever happen, Robin is his nakama and has been for years.

"So?" He responds grouchily. He knows what she's getting at. Between the fact that it was Sanji who painted him with such attentiveness and how he's fussing over his appearance it's clear that more is going on than Zoro is willing to admit. Robin knows of the thankful speech that she helped him write to Sanji after that first sparring session, one that turned out to be the first of many. But he doesn't think, though with Robin it is possible, that she knows of that one kiss that he gave Sanji. He has kissed Sanji once and Sanji kissed him just the once last night. He's not sure what it really means for either of them, how do Baratians view that kind of thing?

"Nothing, just saying." Robin says with innocence so fake that it makes Zoro's eyes roll. He stops fiddling with his earrings and makes his way into their shared living area and drops into one of the lounge chairs as he waits for Sanji to get done with getting dressed. The blonde went to get dressed long before Zoro bothered to, so he had expected the man to be done by now.

After an hour and a half Zoro gets bored and wanders off to find Sanji. He knocks on the door of the man's room and when he doesn't get told to piss off he peeks his head around the door. Zoro's eyes widen in shock, Sanji is shining with reflected light from all over. His snow white shirt is glittering with silver thread, stitched into whorls and wave patterns that catch the light brilliantly. The hems of the sleeves and the deep neckline of his shirt are similarly sewn with glittering thread and perhaps some kind of small stones. He wears a waistcoat of the finest blue silk and velvet that Zoro has ever seen and this too is covered in detail so fine that it must have taken the person who made it weeks to complete. His legs are hugged by fitted silk that seems to reflect different shades of blue like the ocean, ending in white leather boots so pure and bright that they can hardly be believed.

"Zoro?" Sanji asks curiously, his head tilting as he looks at Zoro. He's probably been staring for a while. He spots then that there seems to be some fine silver chain woven through Sanji's golden hair that comes together across his hairline on his forehead with a blue jewel in it that is almost exactly the colour of Sanji's eyes. His hair itself seems to be threaded with delicate tendrils of this chain making his entire person seem to glitter and glow, the whole effect making the man seem somehow ethereal like some mystical demigod.

"Uh." Zoro manages, both languages temporarily abandoning him.

"I uh... you... ready?" He says brokenly with no excuse as he's speaking in his native tongue.

"Just about." Sanji responds with a sigh and picks up a complex looking necklace, threading it around his neck twice before reaching back to clip it closed. He seems to struggle with it for a moment before groaning in frustration and then flicking a look to Zoro. Sanji doesn't ask for help but nor does he protest when Zoro slowly moves behind him and takes the ends of the necklace from Sanji's hands. Zoro swallows thickly. His hands aren't made for dainty tasks such as this but even though he feels unnerved at Sanji's presence in his current dress he has been trusted with this task and his hands are always steady.

He clips the necklace together and then looks up to see Sanji watching him in the mirror with a curious look on his face. The blonde before him stares at him. He's Zoro's husband, and yes, the idea is taking a long time to sink in but it's true that this man before him is indeed his. Sanji slowly turns around, leaning back casually against the mirror to take in how Zoro looks, his head tilting slightly in assessing curiosity that makes the complex workings of Sanji's outfit shimmer in the light and if Zoro is not mistaken his skin seems to glimmer too.

In comparison to Sanji, Zoro feels suddenly horrifyingly underdressed.

"You're ready for battle." Sanji says after a moment in Zoro's language.

"No, well... it's formal. I could... it's armor." Zoro mumbles, tapping against the breastplate to demonstrate.

Sanji's hands reach out and feel Zoro's chest, touching the soft black leather and feeling under the edges. Zoro's breath halts in his chest and his heart all but stops.

"Silk huh? I guess it is... what was that word?" Sanji frowns.

"Formal?" Zoro offers weakly.

"Yes, formal." Sanji agrees with a nod.

His eyes then track downwards and Sanji's hand brushes curiously against Zoro's thigh. His trousers are made up of leather and silk in what makes for almost a decorative kind of plate armor. Zoro's major muscles are lightly protected but he can move as easily as anything.

"This too..." Sanji wonders quietly.

"It's... silk stops arrows." Zoro blurts out. He needs to say something, anything, because Sanji is  _touching_  him in a way that half confuses him and makes him doubt if it's a culture thing and half makes his heart race in anticipation and hope. He can't say any of that so he keeps talking instead.

"It takes a lot of force to penetrate silk, though you can cut it with a sword, but if you get shot with an arrow, even a barbed one, you can pull it out with silk as it doesn't cut through the silk. So you can get it out without making the injury worse. Of course you've still been shot but it's nowhere near as bad as it would have been. Silk is actually very strong, so we line armor with it." Zoro continues to babble in explanation, though from the slightly confused and overwhelmed look on Sanji's face he's guessing that the blonde isn't getting much of what he's saying.

"But it's dinner." Sanji says slowly.

"You should always be prepared for battle, even if you would be relaxed. If you're not then that's when you'd be attacked." Zoro answers smartly, his years of training filling in for him.

"Always?" Sanji blinks in shock. Zoro purses his lips, he sees now why Sanji's country needs Zoro's country. Baratie has a great many things, brilliant minds, excellent food and agriculture, advanced cities... but they have barely any military skill. It's mainly the natural landscape that has protected Sanji's people so far, but in the last few hundred years they have suffered greatly as the hands of people more advanced in warfare, though never from Zoro's lands.

"Always." Zoro asserts.

"But... this is formal. I wouldn't actually wear this to war, but it'd protect me enough." Zoro concedes with an awkward smile.

Sanji seems to consider this with a soft 'hmm' sound. His hands reach out to Zoro's arms, fingers idly tracing out the stark black marks that he'd left there over hours of work. He reaches up and tugs Zoro's leather breastplate slightly to the side, perhaps making it a little more even. His hands then quickly run over Zoro's chest, perhaps brushing dust or dirt off of him. Eventually Sanji's hands settle on either side of Zoro's waist and the man smiles softly.

Sanji says something, it's something complimentary on his appearance, the closest approximation that Zoro can get to is 'you look great' but the tone is different from how he's heard the words before. Sanji's language is tricksy like that and Zoro suspects that Sanji's tone says something similar but different. Either way the compliment, though not fully understood, and the contact from Sanji make Zoro's face heat up so much that he's halfway worried that the ink on his face will melt off.

"Come on." Sanji says, leading the way out of his room.

"Cutting it close on time." Robin remarks as they enter the main room again. Zoro senses that the statement is more directed at Sanji than it is at him as Robin's works are in Sanji's language.

"So sorry my goddess." Sanji says with a move that is somewhere between a bow and a swoon. Zoro rolls his eyes.

"But my... you look incredible." Sanji praises her, taking her hands and looking her up and down in awe. Zoro's brow furrows, it doesn't have quite the same tone to it as when Sanji said it to him so... what he's saying to Robin must be slightly different. But how? Stupid tone dependent language.

"How come Robin's not dressed like she's planning on killing people, huh?" Sanji asks, gesturing from Robin to Zoro.

Zoro frowns in confusion. Robin is wearing a decorative leather corset that comes up to a flared collar at her neck, all of her vital organs are protected. It's black and purple with flowers on so, yeah, it's pretty but it's sure as hell functional. Below her corset is a shimmery purple silken dress with some kind of black lace in places.

"She... is." Zoro says slowly, not getting how Sanji doesn't see it.

"I'm not a direct fighter like Zoro, my skill relies on speed and precision. This dress more than allows for both as well as protection. And I'm carrying no less than six knives on my person you know." Robin says with an indulgent and slightly predatory smile.

"Wh-where?!" Sanji asks, his eyes bulging in shock.

"Don't ASK her that!" Zoro yelps in mortification, slapping Sanji on the arm.

He notices Usopp for the first time, leaning on a pillar by the door and almost doubled up laughing.

"If you ask a lady to show you her weapons then she might just show you." Robin purrs, leaning into Sanji's space with the air of a cat getting close to a mouse.

"And it'll likely be the last thing you see." Usopp giggles. Sanji at least has the decency to go red and Zoro reminds himself that he's going to have to make sure that Usopp and Robin properly school Sanji on not asking questions like that when they get back to Zoro's country. Zoro's toes are curling in his boots from reflected embarrassment on Sanji's behalf. Robin seems to have taken it in her stride though as she gently herds them in the direction of the main palace grounds with an airy wave of her hands as if they were flower petals that she was trying to move with a breeze.

When they enter the main ballroom it's not set out for dancing yet. Zoro's been informed that it happens after the meal. Instead there are long tables set out, white dinner cloths covering every surface. Many people are already sat down and any hopes that Zoro has of sitting down to eat without any big fuss is spoilt by some announcer bastard yelling out that they're here and who they are and making everyone look at them. Great.

His hand is laced with Sanji's a show that they're together that Robin and Usopp didn't even have to prompt them to make. Perhaps some level of his nervousness shows because Sanji squeezes his hand for a moment.

"No one's going to try to chop your head off you know." Sanji says under his breath in his own language.

"I would feel better when they do." Zoro mutters back.

"If they do, not when." Sanji corrects quietly. Zoro grunts in response. He knows what to do in a fight but now every bit of etiquette that Robin has been trying to drum into his head is swirling around and making him feel lost at sea.

"Just follow me." Sanji whispers.

Zoro does.

A man in a silly ruffled shirt with black polished and buckled shoes leads them to their places with a flounce so pronounced that Zoro half wonders if he's got something shoved up his ass to make him walk like that. Zoro settles into his seat. The seating is not how it was on their wedding day, where the tables were set out in a U shape, with the people closest to the king sat near him. At that point it had been Zoro and Sanji on his one side and then other members of his family on the other, Robin and Usopp had been there and it'd been fine.

However this time the tables are set out completely differently. The room is filled with small circular tables seating six people or so to each one. If it wasn't for the classy atmosphere Zoro would say that it looks like a bar or tavern with tables set out for people to drink in private groups and not to sit with people that they don't know.

Zoro settles into his seat next to Sanji and notes that, as was the case on their wedding day, there is a simply obscene amount of cutlery surrounding his plate, each fork, spoon and knife meant for a different purpose that eludes Zoro. He just remembers Robin's rule that you work from the outside in and failing that to just copy Sanji. Unfortunately Robin and Usopp are sitting some distance away on completely different tables to them and to each other.

There are a few people already seated at the table and Sanji gestures to them and introduces Zoro.

"Zoro, this is Conis, she's my..." Sanji trails off with a frown.

"I don't know how to explain who you are to me in his language." Sanji says apologetically as he looks at the blonde girl. Zoro tilts his head at her curiously. She's blonde and pretty and dressed in a pretty pink gown she bites her lip and frowns in thought.

"Oh! My father father is her father father. Zeff's is her father cousin." Sanji explains in Zoro's language, his words jumbled but Zoro gets the picture.

"She's family." Zoro replies simply.

"Yeah but- whatever." Sanji grumbles, clearly annoyed at having gone to all that effort when Zoro doesn't really care.

"Hi." Zoro says, reaching across Sanji to shake her hand. She blushes but says how pleased that she is to meet him.

"This is-" Sanji starts explaining, gesturing to the blue haired guy on Zoro's right.

"Franky! I kill thing!" Franky blurts out enthusiastically in Zoro's language with horrible pronunciation.

"What?" Zoro asks back in confusion.

"Uh... Franky since when do you even speak Zoro's language and... just... what?" Sanji asks in his own language. The giant blue haired man reddens considerably.

Franky and Sanji drop into Sanji's language at a speed a little fast for Zoro to keep up, the fact that Franky is mumbling a little bit in embarrassment doesn't help any. The gist is that he was one of the people involved in the negotiations that led to the two of them being married and he's been trying to learn the language.

"Ohhhh..." Sanji says, leaning back in his chair with a grin.

"And you've just decided to pick up learning her language huh?" Sanji says with a slow smile.

Franky is approximately tomato coloured right now and Zoro catches the glance that Franky flicks in Robin's direction, not the Robin is even looking his way.

"Shut up." Franky mutters.

"Oh. He was doing it for Robin?" Zoro asks Sanji, slipping into his own language, betting that Franky probably won't pick up what he's saying with his very weak grasp of Zoro's language.

"I think so, yeah. It's cute." Sanji responds quietly.

"He says he kills things. What's he talking about?" Zoro questions, recalling the man's rather odd introduction.

"He's a knight and an old friend." Sanji explains with a small smile.

"Can I speak you? For repeat?" Franky asks hopefully.

"Can you talk to me for practice." Zoro corrects with a smile.

"And yes, of course." He adds happily.

"SUPER!" Franky says in Sanji's language, pumping his fist in the air and making Zoro laugh happily.

"So, you see food?" Franky says slowly. Zoro is about to ask what he means when another man joins them in the last seat of the table.

He has long blonde hair and he wears an ostentatious black jacket with a white gilded shirt left open midway down his chest as if to expose himself in what he probably thinks passes for alluring. Zoro just sees it as an invitation to stab him in the chest, the idiot. He's got yellow eyes and a smug grin that's almost catlike in it's appearance, his long canines do nothing to stop the likeness.

"Don't tell me we're gonna be speaking in that dirty language all night just because of him." The man snorts as he drops into his seat.

Zoro instantly dislikes him and if the vibe that he's getting from Sanji is right, his husband feels the same way.

"Fuck me with a rusty fork." Sanji curses under his breath in Zoro's language, but plasters a big smile on his face anyway.

"Cousin, so good to see you." Sanji says brightly switching languages.

"Zoro, this is my stuck up shitty cousin Abasalom, smile so he thinks that I'm saying something nice about him." Sanji says cheerily in Zoro's language. Zoro obliges him, instantly realizing that the man understands nothing of what they're saying except his own name.

"Of course you still have to translate for him. You know that language sounds like dirt." Abasalom laughs flatly.

Zoro looks back to Abasalom and smiles politely, giving a small wave instead of offering to shake his hand. If Sanji dislikes him this much then Zoro doesn't want to touch him. If Sanji can be described as elegant and glowing with his glittering appearance then this guy looks like he fell through a jewelry shop with a magnet. He is gaudy and tacky and Zoro likes him less and less with each passing moment, the fact that he assumes that Zoro can't understand what he's saying makes it worse.

"Excuse me?" Zoro says in Sanji's language, but he can hear that he's not keeping his tone just right so it sounds wrong.

"So the savage knows a few words." Abasalom mutters just loud enough for Zoro to hear. Zoro can hear Sanji's teeth grinding together.

"My. Name. Is. Abasalom." the man says loudly and slowly. Zoro stays silent.

"So no, he can't understand a word. Of course." Abasalom snorts derisively.

"I can't stab him, can I?" Zoro asks, his voice neutral as he speaks within the safety of his own language. Franky's eyes brighten with a hint of understanding and the corner of his mouth twitches.

"I dream that you would, but you can't." Sanji answers back, equally innocuously.

"Invite him back to my country with us, I'll put his head on a pike for you." Zoro purrs and Sanji's ears redden.

"I wish I couldn't talk to him so I'm going to save you." Sanji says with a sigh.

"He speaks some of the language, but not really enough to talk to you." Sanji lies, switching again.

"Whatever. What is he wearing anyway? Fucking savages. I don't know why the king even signed the goddamn treaty with them in the first place." Abasalom snorts. Sanji's hand finds Zoro's thigh and clenches it tight, as if he needs to show some expression of his anger outwardly and to seek some comfort from Zoro too.

"Abasalom, you should be more polite! Zoro is a prince and he is our guest." Conis says, her light voice insistent and getting in before Sanji can say something that'd probably be inadvisable.

"You're in no position to tell me what to do Conis. I'm third in line for the throne, give me some goddamn respect, you're what... eighth?" Abasalom snaps back at her.

"You're fourth actually, now that I'm married. And if you keep talking to Conis and Zoro like that I'll..." Sanji grates out angrily.

"You'll what? I'm your cousin, I'm royalty and you can't do shit." Sanji's cousin taunts him.

"Fuck this." Zoro says to Sanji under his breath and then leans forward and switches to Sanji's language, letting his tone go as aggressive as he likes, knowing that his words will become far more threatening that way.

"You know what we do when people have no respect in Shimotsuki? We stab with hot blade so you don't bleed. Then tie you to horse and let it run. If you're still alive, we cut off your head and stick it on a pole. You should visit." Zoro says with a broad sick smile on his face.

Abasalom isn't smirking now. His face is slack with shock, both at Zoro's threat and the sudden realization that Zoro can speak the language and that he's heard and understood everything thus far.

"You- how DARE you! I'm royalty you can't speak to me like that! And you can't do that to me anyway, you're bluffing! It'd be an act of war!" Abasalom screeches indignantly, drawing stares from a few of the surrounding tables.

"I don't think it is, not in his country." Franky muses aloud and gets an angry glare from the man for his trouble.

"Shut your mouth peasant!" the blonde snaps furiously.

"Insulting Prince Sanji of Shimotsuki is treason. Punishment is allowed completely, but you're right, not without Sanji's permission." Zoro answers with an easy shrug. The hand that had been so tight on Zoro's thigh loosens and Sanji's thumb moves, stroking Zoro's leg through the silk.

"Hmm... a tempting thought Zoro." Sanji says with a thoughtful hum.

"Hello your highnesses, Franky, Duke Abasalom. Is there any problem here?" Robin asks lightly, her hand resting on Abasalom's shoulder and making him jump, he hadn't heard her coming. Zoro catches the glimpse of a knife in her hand where it rests with false casualness on her bare thigh just visible through the slit in the side of her dress. From the small awed intake of breath Sanji sees it too.

"See? Don't upset a lady, you never know where she has a knife." Zoro says softly, touching Sanji's hand with his own. The blonde shifts from having his hand on Zoro's thigh to tangling it with Zoro's fingers.

"I think I like that." Sanji breathes quietly.

"Get your hand off of me!" Abasalom hisses at her, glaring at Robin who's smile turns a little sharper and she draws the still hidden knife into her hand properly, though the loudmouthed man remains oblivious.

"As much as I'd like for you to slit my cousin's throat it'd probably be a political disaster. And we haven't had dinner yet and it'd get everywhere." Sanji answers in Zoro's tongue, his speech perfect this time in a way that sends flutters through Zoro's chest.

"There's no problem." Sanji answers easily in his own language, for the benefit of the others. The unblinking look that he fixes his cousin makes his point quite clear.

"Wonderful." Robin says brightly, sheathing her stealth weapon and straightening up with a happy smile and returning to her table with a sway of her wide hips that leaves Franky red faced.

"Their savagery rubbing off on you, I won't stand for this, I'm leaving!" Abasalom snaps and stands up angrily, storming from the table and the room, raising eyebrows amongst guests.

"Oh no, the tragedy." Conis beams.

"Not gonna miss him." Franky chuckles to himself.

At that moment servants come by with their arms laden with more plates than seems possible and they set one down at each place, including Sanji's cousin's vacated seat.

"So we can take his food?" Zoro asks after a moment.

"It'd be a shame to waste it." Sanji agrees, glowing with happiness and reaches over to take his cousin's plate and pulls it to the centre of the table, pushing the low glass centerpiece aside to do so. Everyone around the table helps themselves to a little of the abandoned dish.

Zoro looks at his plate, it's some kind of oyster. Baratie is famous for its seafood and whilst Zoro likes it has got no idea exactly what it is. He turns his attention to the overwhelming array of cutlery surrounding his plate and feels stupid, was it this tiny fork or that one?

"Eat it however Zoro, don't look so-" Conis says and the word that she uses escapes Zoro but he takes it to mean that he shouldn't look worried about it. Zoro glances to Sanji for confirmation and the blonde prince shrugs.

"As long as you eat it and like it I'm not that worried. Food is meant to be enjoyed." Sanji says with a smile. Zoro grins and grabs a fork, spearing the soft flesh of the mollusk and guiding it to his mouth. Zoro will say one thing for Baratie, its food is fucking amazing. Considering the quality of the food, the now very pleasant company and the good booze... Zoro could get used to spending half of every year here.


	6. Chapter 6

Robin and Usopp are doing it again. Sanji and Zoro are on their way to becoming properly bilingual, but Robin and Usopp are... well, who knows how many languages they speak. Whenever the pair have something that they want to talk about in private they just switch to one of their shared languages and talk about it right in front of the pair of them. It pisses Sanji off, royally so in fact.

He's got a good idea of the topic of the two translator's conversation though. From the gestures and the way that Usopp keeps shooting looks at Robin's marks and at Zoro's ones.

"I hate when they do that." Sanji mutters under his breath, leaning against the wall and pretending that he can't hear the pair talking about them.

"Who?" Zoro asks and takes a deep gulp of his drink. Sanji distractedly watches Zoro's adams apple bob as he swallows.

"Them, talking about us." Sanji answers with an incline of his head towards the pair.

Zoro looks over and frowns, the expression a thousand times fiercer for the marks on his face. Sanji's stomach flips and he curses it silently. He could focus on food during the meal but before that and after it his stomach has been all butterflies. Maybe it's the way that Zoro's dressed or seeing his handiwork all over the other man but...

"I will force them to stop scream them for you." Zoro says harshly, mangling Sanji's language as he speaks.

"I... suspect that you didn't mean that. Tone, remember?" Sanji reminds him.

"Oh." Zoro frowns some more and tries again. "I can ask them to stop if you like. Was that right?" Zoro corrects himself, toning his voice down into something gentler and sweet almost. Sanji's breath hitches, goddamnit.

"It..." Sanji takes in a breath, trying to force his own tone into saying what he should. He knows that if he doesn't calm down then his tone will make him say something far more aggressive. You always had to watch your tongue when you spoke Baratian but Zoro had no such problem. He switches languages, this time he can sound just as irked as he feels without threatening murder by accident.

"It annoys me. I can hear them!" Sanji growls.

"You're offended." Zoro says. It's not a question but a statement. Still, Sanji nods anyway. Zoro's mouth tugs down and he hands Sanji his glass. He squares off his shoulders towards Robin and glares at her, the woman's attention snapping to him immediately. Sanji notices her own posture becoming coiled and tense in her muscles.

"Stop talking about us." Zoro orders in a tone that surprises Sanji. He's heard Zoro irritate Robin for fun, tease her, beg her or wheedle with her for things, he's heard him sulk but never ever has he heard him order her to do anything. Robin arches a delicate black eyebrow in a deliberate gesture. She's not got that sly smile on though, she's just staring back at him. Testing seeing if he'll give perhaps. It must be serious because Usopp looks like he's about to shit himself. Part of Sanji wants to reach out and touch Zoro, to snap him back and tell him that it's not that big of a deal. However, the smarter part of Sanji suspects that it'd be showing Zoro up somehow, acting as if he can't win his own battles against Robin and trying to stop him from starting a fight he can't win.

Robin eventually breaks, a small smile crossing her face as she takes a small step back and with a gentle wave to Zoro shimmies off with a terrified Usopp following after her in a sudden flail of limbs. Zoro relaxes all over and returns his attention to Sanji, taking his drink from Sanji's hands.

"You didn't have to go that far." Sanji says with a frown.

"It bothered you." Zoro says with an easy shrug.

Sanji opens his mouth to protest but closes it again just as quickly. His instict is to say that it wasn't a big deal, that it didn't matter that it annoyed him. His language and his father have both drummed into him to watch his tone. Respect is important. He and his father bicker and argue all of the time, both of them with fiery tempers and he's never had to be restrained with the man. For all their arguments Sanji and Zeff had a good relationship. Weird, but good. But with everyone else Zeff is always telling him, don't fight with the deligates, don't argue with your relatives, mind your tone. Whenever Sanji snappes and failes to do these things his old man chews him out for it and it pisses him off and really sticks in his throat.

Zoro doesn't seem to think like that though. Sanji said that something was bothering him and Zoro fixed it, he did... whatever that physical equivalant of chicken was and got Robin to back down and go away. Sanji was stuck playing polite with his fucking cousin and Zoro recognised it and threatened him and make him storm off. Zoro doesn't do minding his tone, he doesn't do restraint. Not at all.

"Why do you do that? With Robin... with Abasalom. You just... fight." Sanji asks, taking time to get his words right. His sentance comes out slow and he knows that his pronounciation of the word fight was completely mangled, he just can't get that sound in his throat like Zoro can, the one that sounds a little like choking to his ears.

"You lied to your couisin, you were lying to them. We don't lie." Zoro says, his face and voice serious.

"And your cousin was a bag of shit." Zoro adds with a slight grin that makes Sanji burst out into laughter.

"But I wasn't lying to Robin and Usopp. I didn't say anything." Sanji points out reasonably.

"Not saying what you feel is lying." Zoro states easily and finishes his drink.

Sanji looks at Zoro. Has he got enough to drink to ask a question that ballsy? Hm. Ah well, fuck it.

"So, how do you feel about me?" He asks with far more calm than he feels.

He watches Zoro carefully. The other man's mouth opens slightly, but nothing comes out and Sanji gets to watch up close how Zoro's skin starts to go red, changing the colours under his patterned marks. Zoro shuts his mouth and swallows, his eyes darting away.

"I..." Zoro mumbles awkwardly to a spot on the wall about three inches to the left of Sanji's ear. Sanji decides to be a little shit and moves into that space, making Zoro look at him. Oh hey, Zoro can go redder.

"You kissed me once." He points out. Zoro is approximately tomato coloured now.

Zoro answers something, fast and under his breath.

"Say again?" Sanji asks, poking Zoro in the chest.

"I don't- don't know." The prince says uneasily.

Sanji leans back and considers that answer for a moment. If he has to be completely honest he can't say that he knows what he feels for Zoro either. Oh sure, the man is handsome and he has lots of good qualities, he makes Sanji's heart throb sometimes and he's had butterflies almost all evening from being with him. But it's hardly love, they barely know each other.

"Different from when we met?" He prompts.

"Yes." Zoro replies, that answer seems easier.

A heavy silence falls between them and Sanji doesn't know if he should have said what he did, but if he made Zoro speak his mind then he owes him the same respect back. Besides, if he's going to start adopting some of Zoro's culture then this seems to be a reasonable place to start.

"I don't know either." Sanji offers and Zoro looks up in surprise. Oh wow, now Sanji feels his own face heating up a little. Zoro stares at him and Sanji wishes that he knew the man well enough to read him better. He thinks that's uncertainty there on Zoro's face.

Warily Sanji leans forward and kisses Zoro, very softly and hesitatantly. Not on the corner of his mouth like Zoro had done to him, but for real. He pulls back slowly and finds that after a second Zoro chases him, kissing him back just as shyly.

The two of them linger together for a little bit, noses brushing and close enough that the other would only have to pitch forward ever so slightly to kiss the other one again. Sanji leans in a little more, not so much kissing Zoro as just having his lips up close. He can feel the other man breathing, light and soft as if he's scared that he might startle Sanji away.

"How can you be manly and cute at the same time?" Sanji mumbles under his breath, his lips brushing Zoro's as he speaks. He's holding onto Zoro's arms and yeah, Zoro is absolutely masculine, no doubt about that. But cute and almost shy? That's a new one.

Zoro pulls back with a frown on his face.

"I don't understand what you said." He says in Sanji's language. It's one of the first phrases that they each learnt in each other's languages.

"It's okay." Sanji says, shaking his head and giving Zoro a smile.

"Want to dance?" He asks, holding his hand out to Zoro. The other prince looks a little hesitant at Sanji's offer.

"Hey, I've seen Robin making you practice, you're not that bad you know." Sanji says with a light laugh. He watches a muscle clench in Zoro's cheek and the man nods. He takes Sanji's hand, his expression looking more like a man heading out to battle than to a waltz.

Sanji grins and pulls him into the middle of the ballroom floor. One of the advantages of being a prince is that people make way for you, you don't have to worry about finding a spot. He turns back to Zoro, their hands still intertwined and pulls the other man closer to him.

"Just follow my lead and you'll be okay." Sanji says quietly and takes Zoro through the dance to the music, pulling Zoro from one step to the next. Zoro clips his toes a few times and looks terribly ill at ease.

"Stop looking at your feet. Look at me." Sanji says, slipping into Zoro's language so that the people around them won't understand what he's telling Zoro. Zoro's lips purse and he does what Sanji says. With him not focusing on his feet so much his dancing actually improves. He still feels stiff and forced at it, but he's technically doing fine. Sanji smiles and decides to distract him further.

"Your Baratian is getting pretty good you know. Except for the tone thing. You keep sounding like you're making angry military demands." Sanji says with a quiet laugh in his own language again.

"It sounds the same." Zoro grumbles unhappily.

"You'll get there." Sanji says confidently.

Sanji closes his eyes happily for a few moments. This is easily the best ball that they've ever held, for him anyway. By this point in the evening he would have had to dance with plenty of old distant great aunts and diplomats, anyone that needed flattering. But now that he's married it's perfectly acceptable for him to be dancing with Zoro and Zoro alone. If he does dance with anyone else it'll be by choice. He likes that.

"How come you speak in my language more than yours to me?" Zoro asks. The other man looks curious and Sanji has to answer.

"I need the practice." He answers with a shrug. Zoro's thumb runs across Sanji's clavicle at the movement and Sanji becomes hyper aware of everywhere that they're touching. His hand on Zoro's back, their hands together and Zoro's hand on his shoulder.

"So do I." Zoro points out flatly, his tone implying something along the lines of 'as you keep reminding me'.

"Yeah, but- I can't make the sounds right. Fight, morning, water, they've all got that- I can't say it!" Sanji says in frustration, able to hear just how wrong he's saying it but able to do nothing to stop it. He tries and just sounds like he's choking on something. He glares at Zoro repressing a laugh.

"It's from here, not here." Zoro says, his hand moving to Sanji's jaw and then to his throat.

"Tomorrow, I'll show you." Zoro says with a firm nod.

Sanji's eyes widen. They've practiced together, hell, every conversation that they have is practicing together. But formal teaching has always been done by Usopp for him and Robin for Zoro, they've never taught each other beyond the occasional correction of a word. It's... okay, yeah, he's looking forward to that. Especially if Zoro's gonna touch him like that again.

Usually it feels like these festivities drag on for forever but the evening speeds by. He and Zoro talk and dance, they drink and chat to other people. Sanji talks to Franky who asks nervous questions about Robin. Zoro and Robin get told a spirited tale from Usopp that has Zoro laughing so hard at points that he starts crying from it.

Before too long people are leaving and it's time to retire. Zoro and Sanji follow Robin and Usopp back towards their private wing of the palace, but he and Zoro take longer as Sanji starts to, slightly drunkenly, point out every painting and tell Zoro which relative of his it was and what they did so long ago.

By the time Zeff catches them, they're alone.

"Oi, brat. A word." Zeff says gruffly.

Zoro's eyes widen and his hand tracks to his hip. Zoro recognises enough of tone to know an agressive one when he hears it. Sanji elbows Zoro in the side.

"It's cool. Go ahead, don't get lost, moron." Sanji grins, shooing Zoro away. Zoro casts a dubious glance at him but then nods.

"Find me when you get back. Please?" Zoro says under his breath in his own language so that Zeff can't understand.

"Yeah yeah, get." Sanji snorts and shoves him off.

"Whadda ya want old geezer?" Sanji asks after Zoro's gone a decent distance away.

"I saw the two of you tonight. Kissing againt the wall like a pair of stupid teenagers." Zeff says flatly.

"We are a pair of stupid teenagers. Wait. No, we're not stupid- stop LAUGHING." Sanji yells over his old man's belly laughs.

"Oh boy," Zeff laughs, wiping tears from his eyes. His face turns serious again though as he starts to speak again.

"You know you don't have to though, right? Just because you're married. It's political and you don't have to-" Zeff says seriously.

Oh. Sanji's face reddens as he tries to form the words in his head into speech.

"Uh. No, that- I... wanted to." He mumbles, suddenly looking anywhere but Zeff.

"Oh-ho." Zeff says and raises a bushy eyebrow at him.

"Shut up, it's not- shut up, old fart. No one asked for your opinion!" Sanji snaps, his face red with more than just tipsiness.

"Whatever makes you happy eggplant. Just checking. I'm going to bed, my old bones are tired." Zeff says grudgingly and wanders off with a wave.

"Well, GOOD. You- you do that!" Sanji shouts after him, trying to feel like he won something there.

He stomps around the corner and down the hall. He shoulders the door to their section of the palace open and finds Zoro pacing the room, his hand tight on the hilt of his white sword. He jolts when Sanji comes in the room and the blonde feels Zoro's eyes run over him.

"Calm down moss head." Sanji snorts, shoving him in the shoulder.

"You said tone important. He was angry. You okay, yes?" Zoro demands, catching Sanji's elbow as his speech clips and warps under stress.

"He always sounds like that." Sanji laughs.

Zoro's tenseness is so funny. He foregets sometimes that Zoro really hasn't interacted with Zeff much at all. His old man is busy so much of the time and when Sanji sees him Zoro's usually asleep or training. Zoro however seems to only get angrier and Sanji replays his words in his head. If Zoro thinks that Zeff was sincere in his gruff and angry tone and Sanji's just told him he's always like that then... ah. Zoro doesn't get the whole acting like you don't mean something, or at least he doesn't assume it.

"We like it. It's just how we are." Sanji explains and watches with facination how Zoro relaxes all in one go.

"For fun. Like us." Zoro says, sounding like he gets it.

"Correct." Sanji smirks and leans in, flicking Zoro's forehead with his fingertip. Zoro scowls and shoves him. Sanji shoves him back and before too long it's an all out shoving match with kicking and punching. It's not a real fight, or a spar either, it's just... fun.

Sanji has a sneaky idea and starts backing up from Zoro in a specific direction when he dodges Zoro's playful swipes, though it takes a while because he still makes attacks of his own. But before too long his back hits the wall near his bedroom. Whoops, how on earth did that happen? A total accident for sure.

"Hah!" Zoro laughs smugly, shoving Sanji's shoulder against the wall.

"Oh no, whatever shall I do?" Sanji says incincerely. His tone seems to puzzle Zoro a little, he still can't parse sarcasm in Sanji's language at all. Sanji hums thoughtfully and places his hands on the soft textured black leather on Zoro's sides and revels in the feel of it, the warmth coming through from Zoro underneath. He pulls Zoro forward slightly and kisses him, a little firmer than they've done so far.

He knows that he should take this slowly, that they should get to know each other and Sanji doesn't really intend for this to get further than this tonight. Not really. But a huge part of his brain is tempted. Tempted to shoulder the door to his room open, drag Zoro in and throw him into bed. He likes what Zoro's wearing but he'd like it even more on his bedroom floor. He supposes that maybe he's testing out the idea, seeing if it does it for him, maybe he's just teasing himself. Maybe he's just trying to see if it does something for Zoro too.

Zoro's breath is shaky and yeah, from the look on Zoro's face he's guessing that Zoro's thinking something along the same lines as him and is stopping for the same reasons as him. Maybe, or at the very least Zoro really likes being kissed like that.

"Goodnight Zoro." Sanji says quietly and ducks out of Zoro's space, heading into his room and shutting the door.

He gets a few steps into his room and smacks his fist against his forehead over and over again. Why'd he do that? What's Zoro going to think now? Stupid! He's got himself all worked up over it too, thinking about doing stuff that's probably not going to happen for a long time.

He sighs and unbuttons his clothes, dropping his shirt to the floor with a heavy flutter of fabric. Sanji's hands pause on the clasp of his necklace. Zoro did it up for him. What if... god... what if Zoro's standing outside right now, listening to his clothes hitting the floor and imaging what he looks like?

A shiver of excitement runs up Sanji's spine. Zoro's probably not doing that at all, he's probably gone off to his room. But he might be there, he might. Sanji unbuckles his belt and drops it to the floor with a deliberately loud clunk. He kicks his boots of and shimmies out of his trousers, essentially giving an empty room a strip tease with the occasional exaggerated sigh. He lets his jewlry clink on the side as he takes it off and lets himself imagine Zoro imagining him. It's probably unimaginably narcissistic to think about this, much less for this to be turning him on but doesn't everyone want to be wanted? Besides, if he believes that Zoro fantasises about him then he won't feel weird about tricking Zoro into more or less pinning him against the wall outside his bedroom. He wants to believe that Zoro's imagining him right now, wondering if he sleeps naked or in something else.

For a change Sanji does decide to sleep nude, ignoring the shower that he should take to wash off the slight hints of shimmer on his skin and doing it anyway. He slithers down under the sheets and feels a stupid thrill about it on his bare skin. Would Zoro think of him like this? Oh, what if Zoro suddenly came into his room tomorrow morning and caught him like this? Okay, it'd require Zoro to suddenly stop the studious respect of Sanji's territory that he's had so far, and his late sleep pattern but he could do it.

Sanji bites his lip and represses the stupid excited smile on his face and instead curls up under his sheets, his head nestling in his pillow as he extinguishes the last of his lights.


	7. Chapter 7

Zoro is asleep. It's a happy dreamless floaty kind of sleep. It's good, it's peaceful and it's also been taken from him. Someone is knocking at the door and it is still dark out. Robin never wakes him up this early, in fact Robin almost never wakes him up period. Over many years they have come to a long understanding about this. 

“Someone had better be dying or someone WILL be.” Zoro growls, pushing himself up and out of bed, stumbling upright and snatching up his swords. 

He pulls his door open a little too forcefully and glares out. Sanji is there in a white shirt and white trousers. 

“What.” He grits out, his tone more threatening than questioning. 

“Come on, get up.” Sanji says brightly. 

“NO.” Zoro growls and slams the door shut. 

The knocking resumes but Zoro ignores it and falls back down face first on his bed. Eventually he hears the door creak open and Sanji sneak in. A hand touches the middle of his back and Zoro freezes, memories of Sanji painting him flashing through his mind. 

“Come on, I want to show you.” Sanji wheedles. 

Zoro turns his face and glares halfheartedly at Sanji.

“It is fucking early. When are you even up at this shit fucking hour? You don't even talk to me without coffee.” Zoro groans and shuts his eyes, trying to shut out the brightness of Sanji's smile. 

“I'm ALWAYS up at this shitfuck hour. Move your useless thick head and get up now or... or... or I'll fuck you.” Sanji snarls at him. 

Now that has Zoro awake. 

“You'll what?” Zoro asks horsely, his head snapping up from the pillow and eyeballing Sanji in shock. 

“I'll fuck you.” Sanji repeats smugly. Zoro blinks at him slowly. 

“I... I don't think that's right. What did you mean?” he says carefully. 

“I'll... fuck you? Uh... I'll kick your ass.” Sanji tries again. Zoro squeezes his eyes shut. It is far too early for this, but it's awake now so he may as well do what the man who just inadvertently offered to fuck him says. 

“You'll fuck me up. That's what you meant.” Zoro explains wearily. Dragging himself out of bed and throwing the nearest clean shirt on and then pulling black trousers on. Huh, he'd been talking to Sanji in just his underwear and didn't even notice. He must be tired. 

“That's what I said.” Sanji protests from behind him. 

“No. It's really not.” Zoro sighs and looks for his boots. Where did he kick them off and why can he never find them in the morning?

“What did I say?” the prince asks curiously. Zoro pauses, one hand on a newly found boot. 

“Ask Usopp.” He answers, feeling far too grumpy to be charitable. He hears Sanji huff and walk off, but apparently he hasn't gone far. 

“Oi! Usopp! What does 'I'll fuck you' mean?” Sanji yells out of the door. Zoro hears the sound of liquid being sprayed across a large surface followed by some very enthusiastic choking and coughing. 

Zoro makes his way to Sanji and leans against the wall next to him so that he can watch Sanji's face. Usopp finally answers in Baratian with a little coughing and Zoro gets to watch up close as Sanji's eyes widen and a look of mortification crosses his face. Sanji woke him up all kinds of awfully early so Zoro is more than happy to let himself grin as darkly as possible at Sanji's linguistic misfortune. 

“I hate you.” Sanji snarls and jams his elbow into Zoro's shoulder. 

Any sane person would think that kind of statement would exempt Zoro from having to go along with Sanji to wherever and whatever he woke him up for, but apparently not. Sanji grabs Zoro by the arm and yanks him forward. The two of them proceed out of the wing of the palace that the four of them have been occupying in seclusion and into the palace proper. He's not so fond on this area, it's bigger and more formal, he doesn't know who he might run into and he tends to get lost in areas as big as this where the insides all look the same. His stomach tenses in a hot flutter when he remembers Sanji slightly drunkenly explaining the paintings and decorations to him, he'd like to do that again. 

He's pretty confused when Sanji drags him into the bustling kitchen, but he's fine with that, it's early and he can happily eat breakfast. It's only when Sanji calls out a gruff 'hey old man' that Zoro snaps to attention and holy shit the King is cooking in the kitchen with the servants. Zoro's royalty isn't precious about servants and royalty, people choose the job and it pays well, they're viewed as people doing just another job. It's pretty different to how Zoro's seen everyone else in this country except for Sanji and Usopp treat servants though. In Baratie he's seen them be almost invisible, but perhaps that's just Sanji's stuck up relatives and guests. Even so, Zoro can't imagine his father in their kitchen with the cooks and servants actually working up a sweat to do this kind of work. 

“You're late shitty eggplant.” the King berates Sanji without even looking up. He's doing something complex looking with pastry. Zoro bristles a little at Sanji being insulted but he smooths himself down mentally quick enough, Sanji had told him that they were just like that. 

“No shit, you've not gone so senile enough to forget how to tell time. I'm so proud.” Sanji drawls back and Zoro fully relaxes again. It's interesting hearing Sanji be insulting in his own language. 

“Besides, I decided to pick up a special delivery of dumbass today.” Sanji adds, flicking Zoro a look over his shoulder. 

“Oi! I heard that!” Zoro barks in Baratian and Sanji gives him a look that says that he's good and aware that he heard that and it was deliberate too. Zoro considers the merits and demerits of punching Sanji in the kidneys in front of his father. Probably not a good idea. 

“If he's in here then he's going to work.” the King says firmly, waving a hand in Zoro's direction. Sanji makes a dismissive grunt and then turns to Zoro, pulling him off slightly away to a freer part of the kitchen. Zoro wants to ask why on earth the King and Prince of the kingdom are down here but Zoro suddenly has a better question. He's never seen where the food that is in their room in the mornings comes from. He's never seen servants bring it in and now he's considering that it might be Sanji.

“Do you do this every day?” Zoro asks incredulously. 

“Too much emphasis Zoro.” Sanji says with a shake of his head as he pulls down bows and ingredients, measuring things out into the large steel bowl with barely a thought. 

“What did I say?” Zoro groans, Sanji's stupid language and stupid tone of voice. 

“Uh... do this for... all time?” Sanji translates roughly into Zoro's language with a pained frown. 

“But yes, in the mornings I am being here.” Sanji answers, Zoro doesn't bother to correct him. 

“Okay, today you are going to make bread. It's all there, so go.” Sanji says with a shooing motion with his hands and turns to walk off. 

Zoro looks helplessly at the bowl and then to Sanji's retreating back. 

“Sanji!” Zoro calls out, loud enough for Sanji to hear him but hopefully not loud enough for everyone to do so. It's not a total success though because a few people eyeball him. Sanji raises a stupid eyebrow but walks back towards Zoro. Zoro keeps himself in his native tongue because like hell does he want everyone in the kitchen hearing this. 

“I've never... made bread before.” He admits quietly. Sanji tilts his head at him like a curious bird and there's a small smile on his lips that Zoro doesn't know how to interpret. He's pretty sure that Sanji is internally laughing at him. Maybe. Either way Sanji comes back a little to help out. 

“Just stick your hands in and...” Sanji trails off, making a mixing and kneading motion with his hands. Zoro looks warily down at the bowl and prepares to put his hands in and go for it but Sanji slaps him on the arm hard enough to sting.

“WASH.” Sanji barks out at him and Zoro grumbles and trails him to the sink where he diligently scrubs his hands before returning to his bowl. Sanji is flitting about the kitchen doing other complex things and barking orders at the chefs in the kitchen, along with Zeff. The two of them seem to run the place and Zoro finds it endlessly fascinating to watch. Baratians are known for their culture of food and dining, along with their plentiful crops and fresh fish. The reliable and high quality food of the kingdom was half of the reason that he and Sanji got into their arranged marriage in the first place. 

He's procrastinating on his own task though and so he returns to staring down at the bowl and its contents. He has no idea how this mess of water, flour and... whatever other junk Sanji put in here will be bread but he trusts the other man. Warily he puts his hands in the mixture and squishes it around between his fingers. The thing almost instantly becomes fused to his hands and refuses to get off. It's as if all of the liquid in it just stuck to his hands and even though he keeps jamming his hands at the dry flour on the bottom of the bowl it's done nothing to dissuade it from sticking to him. He eventually manages to peel enough of it off of his hands to get more flour in there but it's a stupidly long process and he's pretty sure that he's screwing it up. 

“Your hands were wet when you put them in, right?” Sanji asks suddenly from behind Zoro, making him jump slightly. 

“You said wash!” Zoro argues back defensively. Sanji doesn't argue and instead gets Zoro to rub his hands together as if they're cold and he's trying to warm them up. That peels most of the mixture off of him and Sanji adds more flour. Sanji elbows him to the side a little and quick as lightning he gets the dough out of the bowl and into a perfect round ball through some kind of magic. 

“Wash your hands, then come back.” Sanji orders him distractedly as he tosses the ball of dough from hand to hand and squishes it between his hands. Zoro does as he's told but with added water the dough stuck to his hands turns into adhesive slime which no amount of scrubbing seems to dislodge. Finally he gives up having done his best and returns to Sanji. 

“Hands.” Sanji says, barely glancing at him. Zoro holds them out thinking that Sanji's gonna inspect them, but instead the blonde dumps a handful of flour on them which quickly drops onto the work surface below. 

“Shit, sorry.” Zoro apologizes hastily. Sanji brought him down here to... well, he's not completely sure, but probably to introduce him to another part of his life. Instead of fitting in though Zoro is making a mess of it all and looking highly incompetent to boot. 

“For what?” Sanji frowns at him and drops the ball of dough onto the flour. Oh, apparently Sanji meant to flour up Zoro and the table at once.

“Okay, like this.” Sanji says and kneads and stretches and paws at the dough in a way that's almost a little... hot. His mind skitters into this idea of just how amazing that'd feel on his back after training and he wonders if he'll be able to convince Sanji to do that to him ever. Probably not any time soon, and it's not like he's going to make a fool of himself by asking, but it'd be really nice. 

“Okay, you do that, I'll be back.” Sanji says easily and wanders off to do something else. Zoro watches him for a moment as the long legged prince walks and weaves through his kitchen, dodging people and obstructions like a reed in the wind in a way that reminds him of how nimble Sanji is when they spar. Though his opinion on the prince has been slowly changing since they got married he's starting to seriously think that he misjudged the prissy looking man that he assumed him to be at first sight. Sanji is devastatingly competent at the things that he wants to be and he's a mix of confusingly earnest and flippant about things. He's never sure what to think of the man.

Even after the ball he still doesn't know what to make of Sanji. The man admitted that, like Zoro, he has no idea how he feels about the two of them except that it's better than when they first met. They'd kissed that night, really kissed. He'd cornered Sanji by his bedroom wall and they'd kissed until they were breathless. It was amazing but... he has no idea if it means anything or what it might mean. This isn't love but it might be like. Even if, in contradiction, he often doesn't like the man much because of how annoying he can be.

He scowls down at his bread dough and tries to imitate Sanji. He's not technically very skilled but he does have enough strength in his hands and arms to do a reasonably good job, or so he hopes. It's a really large amount of bread dough though and he has no idea what Sanji is going to get him to do with it. Zoro glances around the kitchen and sees one or two other people making bread only they're making way more and doing it with unbelievable precision. One of those people happens to be Sanji. 

He watches the blonde yank a huge armful of dough out of what can be more accurately termed a tub than a bowl of any kind, it's even resting on the floor, and dump his armload on the steel counter. With some thin flat blade he deftly slices the thing apart in a way that makes Zoro wish that Sanji was a swordsman of some kind. The blonde takes the chunks of dough and then two handed makes two separate round balls of dough, kneading a pulling on each one with a hand each. Zoro's own hands still into idleness as he watches the muscles in Sanji's forearms flex and long strong fingers exercise their power. The blonde is rapidly dropping these balls of dough onto sheets of heavily floured fabric and scoring little crosses into the top of them as he does so, making Zoro's mind flash to the scored rolls that often accompany their breakfasts in the mornings. The man moves fluidly and seamlessly as if he's been doing this his whole life, as if he was born to do this, Zoro considers that both are probably true. 

“You done staring or should I wait some more kid?” a voice barks at him, the words like Sanji's but lower and gruffer. Zoro jolts and sees Zeff, no, the King, standing way too close to him for comfort. How had he not noticed him coming over? Oh yeah, the attractive blonde being skilled in a way that makes Zoro's chest swell with some misplaced pride. After all, what does he have to be proud of? Sanji's skills and accomplishments are his own. But he knows why really. Sanji is his now and seeing just how strong and skilled he is makes Zoro glow with glee at getting to be with someone like that. 

“Any time.” the King says flatly and Zoro reddens at having lost his attention to the other man again. 

“Sorry.” Zoro answers quickly in Baratian. 

“Move over.” Zeff says, moving into Zoro's space. Zoro lets go of the bread dough and watches with interest as Zeff slices it up and braids it into a long knot together, drops it on a tray and dusts it lightly with flour before walking off with it towards the oven. 

Zoro stands there awkwardly alone for a moment before his flour dusted husband comes to his side, beaming and happy from his work. 

“Come on, put those stupid muscles of yours to use.” Sanji smirks and leads him across the room to a medium sized machine bolted to a steel table at the corner of the room. On the other side of it is a huge cart on wheels which on closer inspection is filled with oranges and grapefruits. 

“You,” Sanji says, grabbing a knife off of a magnetic strip and handing it to him with a gesture to the machine. “will cut those up and make juice from them with that and putting it into those glass pitchers there. Ruin the knife, waste fruit or spill the juice and I will stab you.”

Zoro thinks that Sanji isn't entirely serious, but only because it'd make a mess in his kitchen. 

“I can handle a blade.” He snaps back, whirling the knife effortlessly around his fingers. It's not too different from the daggers that he had when he was younger and the trick is the same. Sanji watches him with suspicious eyes but eventually kicks him in the knee.

“Get to it.” Sanji orders and struts off. 

Zoro pulls a face behind his back and gets to work with the citrus fruit. He was right in that it was oranges and grapefruits, but there a few weirdly red oranges in there and some lemons too. He gets about as many as he can on his area before turning his attention to the machine. It has two levers, one vertical and one horizontal. The vertical one seems to operate a hollow dome that goes down over what even Zoro can recognize as a juicer and the bottom horizontal one seems to turn the juicer thing. Weird. He's seen hand juicers at some point, not that he's ever used one, but he's never seen a whole contraption like this. 

He positions a pitcher underneath the spout and crushes half an orange with the top lever, it doesn't go all the way down until Zoro puts more strength into it and then rotates it in place with the side to side lever. Curiously he lifts up the top lever again to remove the fruit and is pleased to see that he got everything out except for the rind of the fruit. The few seeds that were in there seem to have been caught by a large sieve under the juicer which has let most of the fruit bits through, clever. About ten oranges in he can see why Sanji was making a crack about his muscles as he can feel the pleasant burn of use in them. It's not a workout and it's not taxing but he can certainly understand that other less trained men might find this tiring. He checks out the rest of the cooks in the room and sees that all of them are pretty muscled in one way or another. 

He continues his process of cutting fruit until his space is full, then mercilessly crushing the fruit into juice and repeating until all of the pitchers are full and all of the fruit is gone. With his job done he wanders over to Sanji who is busy piping some kind of yellowish thick cream like substance into pastries with great speed and precision. The blonde looks up at him in surprise.

“You're done already?” Sanji asks with raised eyebrows. Or eyebrow as Zoro can only see the one. 

“Yes.” Zoro responds smugly. 

“You better not have fucked it up.” Sanji says with a frown and gently rests his nozzled bag on the side. 

“Sure you don't wanna say that in my language? You could be insulting me or seducing me.” He teases in his own language, he doesn't need the rest of the room hearing him. He doesn't actually know if Sanji knows the word for seducing but from the furiously mortified look on Sanji's face the blonde has got the message clear enough. Before Zoro can react in the crowded space Sanji's foot comes out and snaps harshly into Zoro's hamstring, nearly dropping him to the ground as the nerve momentarily dies. He stops himself with a hand in Sanji's collar, nearly yanking him down with him and strangling him too. 

“Augh, you swirly browed asshole!” He spits, rubbing his leg and swinging for Sanji's head with the other hand. The blonde ducks it easily, Zoro wasn't really trying to hit him after all. 

“You dog faced moron!” Sanji snarls back in his face. 

“You self important shit stain!” Zoro retorts, his nose pressing against Sanji's. 

“I'm gonna ram my foot so far up your ass that-” Sanji starts threatening, but it cut off by a rapid fire laughing shout from one of the cooks in the room. Because of the noise, the speed and his divided attention he doesn't hear what the other man said at all. It also occurs to him that the two of them had dropped into Zoro's own language as they do whenever they argue, so the switch doesn't help either. Apparently Sanji got the message though because his cheeks have gone slightly pink and the way that he grits his teeth sours Zoro's mood. Great, more of Sanji not speaking his mind, that's just-

“Shut your fucking mouth or I'm gonna come over there and rip your tongue out of your head and burn it!” Sanji snarls back in pitch perfect, superbly pronounced words that you couldn't tell it's his second language and a few short months ago he didn't speak a word of it. Right now Zoro could swear up and down that Sanji was born in Zoro's city and not this place. He's perversely pleased at Sanji's filthy mouth. 

“I have no idea what you just said.” The cook laughs and Sanji flips him off instead and stomps over to the juicer. 

Sanji peers into the pitchers, looks at the discarded fruit rinds and the machine and after some consideration turns to Zoro with a bright smile. 

“You did a pretty good job.” Sanji says in a somewhat surprised tone, making the whole thing a pretty backhanded compliment but Zoro will take it. 

“Start serving in the east wing, you two start dishing up the cold meats, oi PATTY IF THAT BREAD IS BURNING I WILL SET YOU ON FIRE!” Zeff says and ends up yelling across the other side of the room. Cooks scatter and run across the kitchen, carrying out orders swiftly in staggered services for different areas across the castle. 

“Stay here. Stay.” Sanji orders him quietly and he picks up a large round serving tray, easily a meter in diameter and starts loading it up from station to station with all of the usual things that appear on their table. Sanji is inexplicably balancing the whole thing on one hand, no matter how heavy it seems to get as he loads it up with juice, bread, pastries, cooked meats, eggs and a thousand other different little things. Zoro watches as Sanji's bicep flexes to hold the weight of it like it's nothing at all, making Zoro's pulse quicken in interest. 

With everything loaded up and Sanji across the room the man flicks him a glance and whistles to get his attention. He's lucky that Zoro is so impressed with the whole cooking thing and his one handed weight carrying that he doesn't mind being whistled for like a dog too much. Careful to not bump into any scurrying cooks or get underfoot of any of them he makes his way to Sanji's side as the two of them slide out of the room. The King calls something to them as they leave which in the cacophony of the kitchen and the still somewhat unfamiliar tongue is lost on Zoro. Sanji however jolts and goes a particular shade of pink that Zoro is starting to like. He doesn't say anything back but instead stuffs a cigarette between his teeth and lights it, taking in an angry puff and breathing it out through his nose like a particularly annoyed dragon. 

When they return to their isolated wing of the palace they find that Robin is up in the kitchen, drinking coffee with two empty mugs at her side. As soon as she sees them she smiles and fills them up. Sanji whirls the large tray down off of his shoulder and hand onto the table top without spilling a drop. He sets everything out just so and then slides the tray off to the side between two cabinets in the kitchen. The blonde drops into his chair, snags a still warm pastry and eats it eagerly before draining half a mug of still scalding coffee in one go. He yawns, loud and jaw cracking, and Zoro realises why he'd assumed that this was Sanji as he first got up. No, this is Sanji tired after several hours of frantic activity first thing in the morning. 

“So you helped out in the kitchen this morning Zoro.” Robin says with a smile. It's not a question, it rarely is. Robin is in the business of knowing, not of asking. 

“I don't think I helped much.” Zoro answers with a downturn of his mouth. If he wasn't a prince and Sanji's husband he's pretty sure that he'd have been turfed out of the place for being in the way. That said, if Zeff wanted him gone he probably would have been made to leave. Zoro catches himself, he shouldn't be thinking of the king as Zeff, he's still the King. But... he's his father-in-law too so maybe it's okay. 

“You helped.” Sanji corrects him and slaps Zoro on the back of his hand with the bread knife. He pulls back a cloth from the braided loaf of bread that Sanji had him make and the King finished for him. Zoro hadn't seen him put it on the tray earlier, he didn't know that Sanji had brought it with him. Then again it seems that Sanji and his father are far more invested in their culture of food than Zoro had originally thought, so it's unlikely that Sanji would want to inflict Zoro's creation on anyone else. Zoro doesn't think that he did a terrible job, he didn't drop the dough on the floor and it still looked okay when the King put it into the oven, but he knows it'd be a disservice to the skill of all of those in the kitchen if he was to assume that his first time would produce results comparable to theirs. 

Sanji begins to cut the bread just as Usopp walks into the room and settles himself at the table. Robin says something to Usopp in one of their shared languages that Zoro and Sanji don't speak. The translators are clearly talking about the two of them as if he and Sanji weren't sitting right there in front of them. He knows that they're talking about the breakfast from their hand gestures towards the food and it's got to be more than simply talking about what there is to eat or the sole fact that Zoro helped make it this morning. That could have been said in either his language or Sanji's. No, they're talking about something more and Zoro really wants to know what the hell is so important. 

He feels Sanji's eyes on him and spies the blonde watching him through the curtain of his hair. Their talking had irritated Sanji before, enough so that Zoro had stepped in on the other man's behalf but it seems this time that Sanji is almost checking whether or not Zoro's bothered by it or not. Zoro sighs through his nose and shakes his head minutely. Sure it irritates him a little but he's known Robin for years and years, she's always been secretive in any language so this isn't really anything new to him. He distracts himself with coffee as Sanji slices up enough bread for everyone and then butters each slice in quick succession, the bread still warm enough to melt the butter after a few seconds. 

Unusually for Sanji he doesn't offer everyone else food before himself and instead bites into his first slice of bread before anyone else does. He chews it thoughtfully, his eyes shut and for some stupid reason Zoro finds an uncomfortable prickle of nerves raising the hairs on the back of his neck. He doesn't care about what Sanji thinks of it, the blonde was the one who made him cook it in the first place, and he did all of the measuring and the King was the one who baked the thing. All Zoro did was mix the dough up amateurishly and roll the dough around. He doesn't care what Sanji thinks of it. He has nothing to prove. He doesn't. His thumb runs back and forth over a fading band of ink on his forearm without even looking at it, his digit smoothing soothingly over the pattern. 

“It's good.” Sanji says after a moment or two. He bites through a piece again and looks at the cross section of the cut whilst he continues chewing, his eyes running over whatever kind of information he finds in bread. Zoro pulls a plate of a few slices towards himself but he still can't take his eyes off of Sanji.

“A little heavy maybe... but if you've never kneaded bread before... I should show you again some time when it's not a rush. You did well.” Sanji smiles at him brightly. 

Zoro grits his teeth down hard on the bread in his mouth and stares down at his plate whilst Sanji offers the bread to Usopp and Robin, getting them to sit down and eat rather than just stare at the two of them. Zoro swallows thickly. He's fine with being attracted to Sanji because, really, who wouldn't be? And he's pleased that Sanji is so much more than he'd first assumed, he's a fighter, he's proud but he's humble and dedicated too. All of those things make him happy to be with the other man but now and then he says things like this and Zoro's heart aches and his breath catches. It's terrifying. He's fought in battles and not felt a shred of fear for himself, he's had people threaten him and fight him. He's won fights and he's lost but he's never felt so intensely out of his depth as he does with Sanji. Sometimes he doesn't even realise how deep in he is until afterwards. When Sanji painted him he'd felt almost meditative and surrounded, like Sanji was an ocean and he was just floating in it. But when he thinks back on it now it's legitimately unnerving just how effortlessly Sanji is able to affect him. He's not sure that he likes feeling this out of control but a part of him knows that it's only going to get more so, he can feel it.


	8. Chapter 8

It's one of the rare hot days in Baratie. It's not the say that the place is cold by any means, they're nice and temperate weather wise, but being by the sea always leads to a fresh and cool sea breeze that Sanji personally loves. Zoro however does not like it at all and spent his entire first month in Baratie grumbling about the cold. He's adjusted over time but Sanji knows that he still doesn't like it much. So today when the wind has either stopped or is blowing from the equator, possibly even Zoro's homeland, it's hot out.

He doesn't even have to ask to know where Zoro will be, he wanders out into their courtyard to find Zoro sprawled out shirtless on the warm tiles, soaking up the sun with a happy little smile on his sleepy face. Sanji balances effortlessly on one leg and uses his bare foot on the other to rub Zoro's flat and muscled belly. Zoro opens his eyes lazily and looks up at Sanji with a grin on his face, he reminds Sanji of a cat in a sunbeam. Zoro's smile pulls at the very faded marks on his cheeks. They're all but gone now, washed away through showers and baths, but there's still a slight shadow of black ink lurking under Zoro's cheekbones.

"Enjoying?" Sanji asks with a grin. Zoro nods with a pleased hum and stretches out on the ground again, shuffling his shoulders on the ground as he stretches them. Sanji decides to join him on the ground and sits with his arms around his knees. Warmth radiates up form the tiles below him and warms his skin from above.

"Do you think it'll be too hot for me in your country?" Sanji asks after a few moments.

"No. Shimotsuki is very nice good warm." Zoro answers in Baratian.

"It's nice and warm, you mean. Or that the weather is good. You had too many words." Sanji corrects him lightly.

"Okay." Zoro shrugs easily, switching back to his own language.

Zoro still has the same problems with Baratian. He adds too many words and his tone trips him up often. Even so he's markedly better than he was even a month ago and miles better than when they first started. Sanji on the other hand struggles with Zoro's vocabulary being so large and having so few synonyms. He finds it harder to understand what Zoro says sometimes, it seems that every day he's drowning in words that he doesn't know. In day to day conversation Sanji can understand him perfectly but as soon as they get onto a really specific or unusual topic he gets lost so easily. On top of that he finds Zoro and Robin's conversations hard to parse with their speed and varying tones. How the fuck is he going to cope when he gets to Shimotsuki?

He chews on his thumbnail as he imagines people laughing behind his back at his ineptitude. He knows that Zoro would never tolerate someone doing that if he knew about it, but the man can't do that all of the time, people can talk about Sanji behind Zoro's back too. He doesn't want that but he knows that his language skills are weak.

"Zoro." Sanji says, trying to keep his voice steady. Zoro grunts sleepily in response.

"Can you tell that I- that I'm from Baratie?" he asks in Zoro's language. He's got two weeks before Zoro's people get here to take them both back to Shimotsuki and he needs to keep practicing now more than ever.

"You're the Prince." Zoro says flatly, opening one eye to look at him.

"I know that, I meant from the way I talk." Sanji snipes back.

"Yes. Your accent, your tone, your-" Zoro says some word that Sanji doesn't know and it does nothing but tighten the coil of worry in his gut.

"My what?" Sanji asks with a downturn of his mouth.

"How you look. You look like you're from here. The way you dress, your skin and your hair too. That's what I mean by your appearance." Zoro answers with some elaboration, repeating the word at the end.

"My appearance." Sanji echoes and Zoro repeats it back until Sanji gets it right.

"What's eating you?" Zoro asks with a frown. For a few long moments Sanji doesn't get what he means, he thinks that he might have misheard it until he realises that it's a metaphor of sorts. It's a pretty accurate metaphor, it does feel like worry is eating at him from the inside out.

"My Tsukian is bad." Sanji answers unhappily.

"It's not. But why?" the other man asks in confusion.

"Never mind. Enjoy the sunshine." Sanji says and quickly stands up and escapes.

He makes his way back indoors and quickly into his room. He feels like a preteen again, running off and hiding in his room. Though then it was sulking and fuming from an argument with his father, now it's out of worry. He leans against the door and slides down onto the floor.

He's spent so much time watching how Zoro reacts to him, when he painted him, when they spar, at the ball and when he takes Zoro to the kitchen with him. There is lots that he still doesn't know about Zoro's culture but he knows that one thing that Zoro's people and Sanji have in common it's that strength is desirable. Sanji likes Zoro for lots of reasons but his physical strength and his strength of character are the things that are making him fall in love with the other man.

He's being stupid, he knows it. He's only known Zoro for a few months, barely half a year and already he's head over heels for the guy. He tries to impress him in their fights, he tries to show off without actually looking like he's showing off. Zoro's a hard man to read but he can see now and then when Zoro is proud or impressed with him and it melts Sanji's insides to see it. But before too long he's going to be in Zoro's country, the only Baratian except for Usopp and out of his depth. He'll be so isolated. His Tsukian is nowhere near good enough to understand everything anyone says and people are going to think he's stupid. If Zoro sees that and thinks that he's stupid and therefore weak then he'll never have Zoro reciprocate his feelings.

It's a political marriage, but he's only gone and actually fallen in love with the man. Sure Zoro likes him, he knows that. He knows that Zoro is attracted to him too, he's seen the way that Zoro looks at him when he's dressed particularly well or after they've kissed. Zoro looks at him like he wants him but... if Zoro loves him back then Sanji's never seen anything to hint at it. But maybe he's missing the social cues from Zoro's culture to pick it up. Sometimes he feels like he gets Zoro completely and that he can read him just fine, but sometimes he's so very different that Sanji feels as if he'll never understand the man.

He jumps when he hears footsteps, it's Zoro's for sure but he thinks that Robin might be there as well. He's not sure, she's usually very quiet and light on her feet and Zoro stomps about the place so much that it's hard to pick out anyone else. Even barefoot like he is now Sanji can still hear him loud and clear. He hears a short exchange in Tsukian and recognizes Robin's voice but it's too muted to get much of it. Whatever it is that they're saying the two of them are having a disagreement.

Sanji leans a little closer to the door and listens.

"You can't just ask me to-" Zoro protests.

"DO IT." Robin's voice is sharp and Sanji winces. In Baratian that kind of tone would almost be a death threat. There's a heavy silence and then a frustrated snarl that sounds completely Zoro like.

"You're sure...?" Zoro says and it's so quiet that Sanji has to strain to hear it.

"Zoro, go to Sanji." Robin sighs deeply and he hears her footsteps start up again.

"But I can't! I don't  _know_  him!" Zoro calls after her, trying to keep his voice under his breath and failing utterly. Sanji feels his heart sink. That pretty much answers his question then. He's fallen for Zoro and the other man apparently barely feels like he knows him. He'd thought that he and Zoro were becoming closer but... but maybe not. Sanji gets up and crawls over his bed, dropping onto the floor on the other side and only just resisting the childish temptation to pull the blankets over his head and hide.

About a minute later there's a knock on his door. Sanji bites his lip and doesn't say anything.

"Sanji?" Zoro's voice calls through the light coloured wood. The prince curls his shoulders inwards and holds his breath as if it'll stop Zoro knowing that he's here.

The door handle turns and the door creaks open ever so slightly.

"Sanji?" Zoro says quietly, guiltily almost. Sanji grits his teeth and clenches his fists. He's not a kid, he's not going to hide from Zoro.

"Yeah, I'm here, unfortunately." Sanji winces. He didn't mean to say that but his tone slipped and the words altered. Fuck, Zoro's carelessness with his tone is rubbing off on him. He hears the door click shit and then Zoro walks around the bed. Thankfully from the look on his face Sanji isn't sure that he caught his verbal mistake, good.

"Do you..." Zoro asks slowly, looking off to the side, his jaw tensing. Zoro takes a deep breath and makes eye contact with Sanji which he breaks almost immediately, his eyes glued to the floor.

"You seemed... scared. Do you... want to... talk... about it?" Zoro grits out, his toes curling in the carpet in discomfort.

"Fucking hell Zoro, don't sprain anything there." Sanji mutters in his own language.

"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have- I told Robin that I shouldn't-" Zoro blurts out, tensing up.

"Shouldn't what? Talk to me?" Sanji snaps. Was Robin always prodding Zoro into interacting with him and this is just the first time he's known about it? Zoro's eyes are screwed shut and he winces at Sanji's words.

"It's completely wrong, I don't have the right to ask! I don't even know you yet!" Zoro says almost too quickly for Sanji to understand. Maybe the hurt shows in Sanji's face because he thought that he'd been getting somewhere with Zoro but even Zoro is admitting that they've not been. Zoro looks completely panicked and is starting to go red.

"No! I didn't mean yet! I might never know you. Uh, not that I wouldn't want to- oh shit. Just- it's not... we don't but we could maybe- just-" Zoro flails, turning redder by the second. Great, now he's panicking because he thinks that Sanji's feelings are hurt. Not that he's wrong but he doesn't want Zoro pitying him for it.

"Fuck you." Sanji spits out in Tsukian.

"I'm sorry. I'll just... go." Zoro says quietly and turns towards the door. He's halfway to it when Sanji opens his big mouth again.

"You know, I thought that you did know me. I thought that I knew you at least!" Sanji says sharply because, yeah, he can admit that his feelings are hurt. Especially after that exchange.

"What? No! We don't- we aren't-" Zoro exclaims, looking back at him with wide, shocked eyes.

"No! I know that this was arranged and you probably don't want to be here at all, but I thought that we were... that we were at least friends. And if you don't feel like you know me why did you kiss me? Because I know you, or I thought I did. I know that you're strong and smart, that you're proud and you're a great fighter, I know that you trust Robin and that you care about Usopp. I know that you like your coffee bitter and you don't like sweet things, I know when you wake up and how warm it has to be before you're happy outside in the sunshine. I know you." Sanji insists, forcing himself to say all of it in Zoro's language, hoping that some of it will mean something to him. He's sure that he's badly conjugated some verbs there and that his sentence structure was shit in places but damnit he needs Zoro to understand this and how serious he is about it.

Zoro stares at him for a second before he bursts out laughing but he stops suddenly and Sanji realises that there's something wet and hot running down his cheek. Fuck, he's actually starting to cry. Shit, now he looks weaker still and that's so fucking wrong. As if he needed Zoro to respect him any less.

"No, Sanji I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at you." Zoro says quickly, rushing over to him and reaching out to touch him. Sanji steps away from him though and glares at the wall, refusing to look at Zoro.

"Yes you are. Just get out already!" Sanji barks out angrily.

"I'm only laughing at you a little bit. It's just that... the one word that we have that works like yours and you didn't understand it. It's kind of funny. A little bit." Zoro says with a small huff of laughter.

"What are you talking about?" Sanji demands, looking at Zoro angrily.

"You said that you know me, but you meant that you know me." Zoro explains in his own language. Sanji squints at him.

"You just repeated yourself." Sanji says incredulously.

"No it's in the tone and the pronunciation, like Baratian. Listen. Know and know." Zoro explains and now Sanji can hear a bit of a difference.

"Well... what's the difference?" he asks with a frown.

"Uh. Know means... well, that you know who I am. Most of that stuff that you just said is knowing me, some of it's... the other kind... a little. Maybe. I could just be- forget I said that." Zoro mutters, shaking his head and going a little red again.

"It's describing something or someone. I know Robin, I know how we met, she's my friend, she's my nakama." Zoro explains. Sanji remembers that word, nakama, it's somewhere between family and friend. Someone not related but who you'd trust your life with. He feels that way about Usopp, they've known each other forever.

"I know you. I know that you can cook really well, that you're a prince, that you can dance better than me, I know how you fight. You see?" Zoro adds. Sanji nods, rubbing at his face and pretending that not a single tear had escaped him. Zoro shuts his eyes for a second and eventually speaks again.

"But knowing someone it's... maybe you don't have a word for it. Robin hasn't told me it if you do. How do I put it..." Zoro trails off with a frown and glares at the wall.

"Okay... generally people who are married, but it's different for us of course, they should know each other. But you don't have to be married to know someone but usually..." Zoro says, not looking at Sanji and his cheeks going slightly pinker.

They're nothing compared to what Sanji's must be like at the moment. Had he really just said accidentally said that he and Zoro are fucking?

"Oh god, I didn't mean that we'd been fucking. Obviously we'd both know if we'd done that or not." Sanji says quickly, feeling completely mortified.

"What? No, you don't get it. Knowing someone isn't fucking them. Well, it is but that's not all." Zoro says shaking his head. With a sigh he sits down on the edge of Sanji's bed.

"So there are people that you don't know at all, that you haven't met. You don't know Luffy. That's the first kind." Zoro explains.

"Who's Luffy?" Sanji asks with a frown.

"Exactly." Zoro grins. Oh.

"Then there are people that you know. So I know your father, the King. I've met him, I can tell you about him. Then you have friends, Usopp is my friend. Then you have nakama and people that you're in love with, they're sort of the same. They're as important but you can be both." Zoro says, speaking slower so that Sanji can wrap his head around it.

"And Robin is your nakama." Sanji nods.

"Yeah, but I don't love her. We don't fuck or anything like that." Zoro nods and Sanji notes that Zoro scrunches his nose up a little, as if the idea disturbs him somewhat.

"So if you love someone, you might marry them." the Zoro says carefully and watches Sanji but for what the blonde doesn't know.

"Duh. We have that here too." Sanji snorts and rolls his eyes. He isn't completely socially stupid and Baratie isn't some loveless wasteland either!

"Shut up, I'm talking." Zoro says and shoves Sanji.

"Just because you love someone, doesn't mean that you know them. You could fuck your friends or even people you're not yet friends with if you want to, it's not the same." he says with a shake of his head. Sanji's eyes widen and he's starting to realise that what he'd said to Zoro may well be far more intimate than he meant to say.

"Knowing someone is..." Zoro sighs and shuts his eyes.

"When you know someone you love them too but it's more than that. You'd die for them like you would for your nakama but it's more than that. It's letting yourself be weak and scared because it's okay with them. They make you stronger and make you do things to be your best even if they have to kick your ass for it. If someone knows you they could break you completely but you know they wouldn't, they couldn't. You feel like they're here, even if they die, they're always there. Lots of people never know someone." Zoro says softly, his hand just touching the place above his heart. Zoro's sentences are relatively simple and clear, but the concept that he's explaining is huge.

"Oh." Sanji breathes. Zoro's just described something like a soulmate.

"So, it was a little funny when I realised what you meant." Zoro says with a slight grin, like he's trying to repress it but failing.

"Shut up." Sanji mutters shoving Zoro off to the side and now the other man is laughing.

Still, Sanji thinks about where he is with Zoro on that scale. Maybe they're nakama officially but he knows that he's falling in love with Zoro too. Part of him knows though that he's starting to feel something that Zoro would describe as knowing someone. He knows he's a better fighter since Zoro has been here. He wants to be better at everything since he met Zoro because he wants to be as strong as Zoro deserves in a partner. The fact that Zoro brings out his most competitive side too makes it feel even more like what Zoro described is starting to fit. But he's got another question on his mind to ask Zoro and if he doesn't ask it he might start saying everything that he's thinking to Zoro instead and that could be disastrous.

"When I painted you. What does that fit under?" He asks carefully, watching Zoro's reactions. Zoro looks a little bit squeamish at that.

"You wouldn't usually do that unless you know someone or you're in love with them but it felt right and you said it did so..." Zoro admits and then looks guiltily at Sanji.

"I liked it. It felt calm. And it got you to shut up for the longest time and that's always a bonus." Sanji teases and Zoro shoves him off of the bed onto the floor. Now it's Sanji's turn to laugh at Zoro and the green haired prince doesn't seem to find it so funny the other way around.

"So why was coming in here and asking me if I was upset so bad?" Sanji asks, surely you could ask if someone was okay if you were nakama or friends with them.

"No, I said that you seemed scared and asked you why. I offered to help you. That's... you'd only do that to someone that you know, or at least where I'm from you would. But Robin says it's not the same here. When we were outside I thought you were worried but then you walked off." Zoro explains. Sanji's gut reaction is to deny that he was scared at all, to bullshit his way out of it but... maybe he shouldn't do that. Maybe he doesn't want to do that.

He stands up and turns around, getting up the guts to speak. He's not a coward and he's not going to back down from something this important, even if it does feel hard to admit.

"My Tsukian isn't that good and I'm... scared..." Sanji says, forcing the word out. Zoro's eyes go almost comically wide at the word.

"It scares me that they'll laugh at me for it, and if they do then you'd keep stopping them because that's what you do. But if you kept having to do that you might start to think that I'm weak and I know that's bad, strength is attractive, right? I don't want that because... I'm... kind of falling in love with you." He admits with a wince. Well, there, he said it. No matter how painfully embarrassing it was he's said it now and Zoro can do whatever he wants with that admission.

"Oh." Zoro says. It sounds surprised and vaguely in awe and Zoro's staring up at him from where he's sat on the bed.

"That's... the kind of thing you would only say to someone that you know." Zoro says in a slightly stunned voice and he swallows thickly.

"Shit, Zoro, I don't get it. I feel like I'm falling in love with you because it's the closest thing that I can think of but everything that you said, friends, nakama, being in love, knowing someone... it's some of all of them. Plus the fact that sometimes you're so annoying that I want to kick you in the face or the things you do are so irritating that I want so  _scream_  and-" Sanji cuts himself off with a growl because he's realised that he's slipped back into his own language and is talking way too fast. He doesn't know half of what he's saying so hell if Zoro's following him.

"I don't think there's a word for it." He concludes after a moment.

"I don't think there is." Zoro agrees with a nod and stands up slowly, watching Sanji as he does. Sanji doesn't feel any better though, that's no kind of answer from Zoro, he still doesn't know how the other one feels.

"Whatever this is... I'm the same, I think. Especially the part about kicking you in the face." Zoro adds with a smartass grin. Sanji kicks him in the knee. Affectionately. Maybe.

"We could just do whatever we want." Sanji suggests warily.

"Yeah. We could." Zoro nods and to Sanji's pleasant surprise he leans in and kisses him. It's gentle at first, careful almost. As soon as Sanji kisses him back though both of them become more insistent in it. Zoro fists his hands in the back of Sanji's shirt and Sanji runs his hand up the bare skin on Zoro's side and feels the last traces of the warmth from the sun on him.

When the knock on the door comes the pair of them are both breathing heavily and Sanji has backed Zoro against the bed so that Zoro's sprawled on it and leant back tugging Sanji down with him. Sanji's half leaning on the bed with one leg between Zoro's and he swears that he is going to kill the person who just interrupted them unless it's for a very good reason.

"What?" Sanji demands and Zoro's hand wanders up the inside of Sanji's shirt, making him shudder happily.

"Sanji, I just got word from the guards." Usopp's voice says through the door.

"Unless we're being invaded I don't CARE right now Usopp." Sanji says tersely as Zoro rubs his thumb over Sanji's ribs and smiles smugly up at Sanji trying to keep a lid on his reactions whilst talking.

"It's Zoro's people, they got here early. Apparently their navigator found a more efficient route or something." Usopp says.

Sanji jolts and his whole body freezes up. No, they can't be here this soon. He was supposed to have another two weeks to practice his language skills and now this has happened with Zoro, whatever it is, and he needs more time to figure it out and how can they be here NOW?

"They're here  _now_?!" Sanji asks in disbelief.

"Yeah, Robin's talking to them now. There's probably going to be some kind of feast or something tonight because of it, so I thought I'd... uh... tell you?" Usopp says sounding more and more uncertain in his decision.

"Okay, thanks Usopp." He says a little unsteadily.

He glances down at Zoro, part of him still worried that Zoro will be put off by his unease but the other man looks perfectly calm. Zoro leans up and kisses Sanji's neck, right over his thudding pulse.

"I'd should see them before Luffy destroys something by accident and starts a war." Zoro says against Sanji's skin.

"Yeah, ok. I might... go cook." Sanji says with a nod. Cooking usually settles his nerves or at least gives him an outlet to yell at people.

"With Luffy here that's a good idea." Zoro laughs and sits up again properly, though Sanji notices that Zoro's hands linger on Sanji's hips for a moment before he stands up.

"I'll see you later. It will be... fine." Zoro says uneasily and Sanji realises that it's not that Zoro's uncertain of how things will turn out but that reassuring him about something he'd admitted scared him is probably a really big deal to Zoro.

"Okay. I trust you." Sanji nods and hears the way that Zoro's breath catches. Zoro glances away and mutters some combination of something that sounds like a vague insult, an excuse and a goodbye before making his way out of the room. Sanji grins like an idiot after him. He's no idea how Zoro's going to hold on that promise but somehow he's not worried about it.

 


	9. Chapter 9

“I got here as soon as I could Zoro, are you okay?!” Nami asks worriedly, rushing to him and throwing her arms around him before letting go again and peering at him. Zoro shakes his head at her but she seems to take it the wrong way, her teeth gritting together and her hand twitching in the direction of her weapon. 

“I mean no, you didn't have to rush here. You're early. I'm fine.” Zoro explains somewhat tersely. He'd seen the expression on Sanji's face, how he turned to dread instantly. It's not Nami's fault of course, she didn't do that to him, but he feels this weird aggression against anything that makes Sanji look like that. He focuses on the calm place in the centre of his chest that has always helped him in his meditation. Centre. Calm. Breathe. 

When he focuses back on Nami her face is a concerned kind of worry, pinched at the corners of her mouth and her thin brows pulled together. She's not a born Tsukian, her looks alone show that, her skin too pale and her hair too red for that. If anything she looks like she belongs more with Sanji's people than Zoro's. They met when Zoro was just a child playing at being a man. He had considered himself a young warrior then and his father allowed it, 'one way or another he will learn from it' had been his father's logic. 

She was twelve and he was thirteen. It was a border skirmish really, her sleepy little country had belonged to the small Orange Union who were a small collection of little islands that bordered Zoro's own country. They weren't part of Zoro's kingdom, nor were they official allies. The towns and islands were scattered throughout a large river that separated several countries, including Zoro's. For the most part the Orange Union were left alone in a kind of no man's land. They weren't valuable enough to bother owning and too much of a pain to deal with for too little reward. The river itself appeared calm and in large places it was. However there were patches in the river between sand banks that looked like you could hop them, but the water was deceptively deep and fast and had claimed many lives. Whirlpools would appear and suck small boats down in seconds, never to be seen again. Only the people of the islands really knew how to navigate them, making it an excellent natural defense. 

At the time there had been reports of disturbances in the area and so Zoro and his closest friend Luffy along with two of Zoro's childhood friends had all gone to investigate. It hadn't been the brightest of ideas at all. He was already a capable fighter at that age, as was Luffy, but Johnny and Yosaku... well, they were okay but not great. The two guys had swords and were more of a danger to other people than themselves but not by much. 

It turned out that a few fishmen had been terrorizing the islands, decimating several and now holding Nami's island ransom. By way of introduction she lied to them, stole their boat and their money and rushed off to sell it to the fishmen. So of course the logical thing to do was to follow her, across dangerous waters, in an 'acquired' boat that they'd never sailed before. In all honesty even now Nami says that she has no idea how the four boys didn't die and she can't even work out what route they took. She and Luffy bonded and Luffy declared that ass was going to be kicked and ass was indeed kicked. Some of it was theirs but they won in the end, thanks in part to Nami herself. She'd been dealing with the fishmen herself for a few years, stealing and robbing from people to pay the ransom on the island all by herself, but with her island free she came back with them. 

Zoro's people called her liar and theif, she called herself the cat burglar and Zoro called her nakama. Now she was one of his most trusted allies, his navigator, his advisor and a badass warrior too. He doesn't disregard her opinion or her advice lightly, but when she speaks next he has no choice. 

“I can't believe that you agreed to this... this... indignity! Being bartered off to some fucking prince like a-” Nami hisses and Zoro stops her. 

“Don't finish that sentence Nami.” He warns her and she scowls at him for it. 

“I'm surprised that Robin hasn't killed him. You won't go back on your word since you agreed but Robin has sworn to have your back and this feels like the kind of thing where someone needs to have your back.” Nami says darkly. 

“I'll worry about my own back, thank you.” Zoro snaps at her and she actually looks sorry. 

“I wasn't saying that you couldn't.” She says by way of apology. From nearly anyone else that kind of comment would spark off a duel over honor and insult, but his nakama were mostly exempt from that. Zoro doesn't care what people say, his nakama are his nakama and they are allowed liberties that other people would get stabbed for.

“You haven't even met him.” Zoro says tensely. 

Nami mutters something under her breath that is absolutely insubordination but Zoro pretends not to hear. Nakama or not he is still a prince but he has moments of selected deafness when it comes to them.

“He's not what you think. He's not what I thought either.” He says firmly. Zoro scratches at his sword hilt and keeps quiet for a moment. 

“I'd agreed to this because the country needed it, you know that. I'd anticipated having to tolerate him, it was a price I agreed to. But it's been completely different.” He continues and sits down on the stone steps of the entrance hall. It's empty now but that's only because Luffy and the rest of the knights are scouting out a safe perimeter and stabling their horses. Well, the other knights are probably doing that, Luffy is most likely off on an adventure. 

“What do you mean?” Nami asks, sitting herself next to him more daintily. 

Zoro choses his words carefully. This is important and weaseling his way out of this conversation is lying, that'd be a shameful thing for him to do, as well as disrespectful to Nami and hugely disrespectful to Sanji. Whether Sanji would see it that way or as 'tact' or 'politics' as he often called it was something that Zoro often had trouble distinguishing. 

“It's complicated.” He starts, focusing on his boots rather than Nami's watchful gaze. “He pushes me, I cannot tell you how much he pushes me. He argues with me, he complains, he insults me and that's usually all before lunch. I don't think I've gone a single week without thinking about punching him in the face over and over again.” He says, because Sanji is easily the most frustrating man he's ever met.

He can see Nami's calf muscles in the corner of his vision and sees how they tense, like she wants to kick something. Has he always been able to read that or is that knowledge he's gained from watching Sanji?

“But he pushes me in good ways. It's like he's trying to make me better, to test me and to work out what we're doing. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't do it back. He's strong, really strong. We spar and he actually really makes me work and he's...” Zoro trails off. He should admit to the fact that Sanji has bested him thoroughly on a few occasions but usually it's a tie.

That's too personal. He shakes his head and carries on. 

“But he's kind and he's gentle too, though it's hard to see it sometimes. His culture is so different that we end up arguing over misunderstandings but I know he never means anything bad by it. Just today we-” Zoro starts but no, that story is too personal as well. 

He flashes to Sanji saying the wrong thing. To that one visible blue eye wide and shining with a tear that he wouldn't shed insisting firmly that he knows him and he thought that Zoro knew him too. Something uncomfortable twists in Zoro's chest at the memory and even now he's not sure if it's a need for it to be true or a horror at having something so personal said to him by mistake. He remembers Sanji admitting that what he feels is a smattering of every level of relationship possible and how Sanji had opened up to him, how he had admitted that he was scared. Sanji had ripped a part of him open, shown Zoro that he was weak there and trusted that Zoro wouldn't do anything to hurt him with it. It makes Zoro shudder up his spine just to think about it. 

He still has to tell the truth.

“I'm in love with him.” He says quietly. 

“You're WHAT?” Nami yelps sharply, leaping to her feet. 

Zoro doesn't want to look up at her but he does. He's not even admitted this to Robin, though that's more because he knows that she knows full well how he feels. Robin probably realised it before he did and he'd be dumb not to notice that she's been nudging the two of them in the right sort of ways. Nami is wide eyed with horror. 

“You can't be in love with him, this has to be some sort of... self defense. Like you think that... that being here and being with him isn't so bad if it turns out that you're in love. That this whole thing isn't degrading to you if it's love.” Nami says gesturing emphatically. 

“I don't lie to myself like that, we're nakama Nami, have I ever done that?” He asks her. Nami shakes her head and combs her fingers through her hair. 

“It's more than that. It's... and maybe it's just because this is new and I know lots of people who are new in love overreact and overblow what they're feeling because it's so new but... I think that I'm getting to know him. But also not and it's complicated and I don't have a word for it beyond complicated.” He admits in one long go. 

“Holy shit Zoro.” Nami curses, staring at him with wide eyes and her hair pulled back from where she's tensely holding it back from her face, giving her an almost comically owlish look and stretching her already shocked wide eyes even wider. 

“All I'm saying is that I'm not sure where we're at and it's unstable and neither of us knows what the fuck we're doing or what we are. But he's important to me. I know I don't give you orders often but I'm ordering you to be nice to him. He's still learning and his cultural understanding is way off so if he acts like a dick then it's not deliberate and you still need to be good to him.” Zoro orders her and Nami's stare gets wider. He can't even remember the last time he ordered her to do something outside of coordinating a plan of attack in a fight. 

“For me, please?” He adds gently. 

Nami doesn't get time to answer though because Sanji's voice comes into the room, shortly followed by Sanji himself. 

“Zoro have you got your dumb fucking ass lost? Do you all do this? Your shitty knights have come in the back and- oh shitfuck!” Sanji tails off in a curse as he spots Nami.

“Did he just switch languages three times just to swear?” Nami asks quietly, her eyes still on Sanji who is noticeably unarmored and unarmed. Oh geez, he really needs to do something about that. Maybe he can get Sanji some formal armor and convince him to wear it all of the time so he doesn't look so inappropriate to other Tsukians.

“He does that, it's great.” Zoro answers, flashing her a smile. That day when he taught Sanji every curse and insult he knew was one of their best. 

“Sanji, it's ok. You weren't interrupting. Come over here.” He says, standing up and waving the uncomfortable looking Sanji over and speaking in Sanji's own language. 

“At least he's cute, I guess. That's something at least.” Nami says to him in Tsukian. She looks Sanji's outfit up and down. As well as not wearing any armor at all Sanji's barely wearing a shirt, it's this blue almost see-through thing that Zoro has no idea how it manages to float like that, seeming to barely touch him in places. Other than that he's wearing white, so much white, it's such a stupid colour because it's just begging to get stained in some kind of fight or another and wearing it might as well be announcing with a loudspeaker that he won't be fighting. 

“He looks like that and you said he's strong?” Nami mutters to him, eying Sanji up, though Sanji is well within earshot. The blonde is tense and when Zoro met him he wouldn't have noticed but now that he knows Sanji he can tell that the other man understands just what Nami is saying and it hurt by it. 

“Nami, this is Sanji. He's the prince, my husband, a skilled fighter and-” Zoro cuts himself off and looks at Sanji.

“You understood all of that?” He asks Sanji in a carefully neutral tone in Baratian instead of Tsukian. 

“Yes. Well... except a few words. You see what I was talking about now?” Sanji responds, his face completely blank and faking at ease. Zoro's heart twinges at seeing Sanji's admitted weakness working against him. 

“You want me to tell her you understand? Or do you want to hear them talk about you when they think you don't?” Zoro asks again. He'd never usually consider this kind of thing, being cunning is more Nami or Robin's thing than his and it's edging dangerously close to a lie, but this is Sanji and he'll bend for him. Shit, that is getting worryingly close to the kind of behavior he would do for someone he knows.

“I've got a pretty good idea already. Tell her if you want.” Sanji responds with a sigh and even Nami seems to notice that he's upset. Zoro flicks his attention back to Nami. 

“You've picked his language up quickly. But then you would if he's not learning Tsukian, which is really fucking disrespectful-” Nami says, her tone turning dark. 

“He has learnt. He does speak it and he understands what you're saying.” Zoro says and even he can hear that his tone is cold and feels Sanji wince at his side, that would not come off well in Sanji's language. Sanji's always said than in Baratian he's an open book. When he's tense or in a bad mood his requests come out as snapped orders and though he's working on it he still fucks it up. 

“Oh.” Is all Nami can say, her face paling in horror. 

“I am so so sorry your highness I just- Zoro's my nakama and-” Nami fumbles for her words. Zoro raises his eyebrows, he's not sure he's ever really seen Nami trip over herself like this. But then again she's never really insulted someone that Zoro cares about who's not blatantly nakama before. Nami is careful usually. She bows deep in apology, her head tilting down even further, showing the back of her neck in a seriously submissive apology gesture that from Sanji's expression is almost completely lost on him. 

“You don't- shit, please...” Sanji insists, kneeling down to meet Nami's gaze. 

“Don't fucking kneel, moron.” Zoro groans in Baratian and Sanji just glares at him. 

“Don't tell me what to do, fucker.” Sanji snaps back at him, flicking between languages to curse him out. Nami stares at the two of them, frozen in her bow and confusion written all over her face. 

“I do what I want.” Sanji says snippily at Zoro, again in Baratian. 

“Please, come on.” Sanji urges Nami, taking her hands and leading her into standing again. Evidently Sanji is going to play this his own way, like Sanji ever does anything but his own way if he has a choice. Stubborn bastard. 

That thought was probably more fond than Zoro had anticipated. 

“You don't need to be sorrys, I want us to be...” Sanji says and then looks to Zoro.

“What's the word for friend that isn't going to imply something really wrong?” Sanji asks in Baratian. 

“Uh. Well, you're already a nakama corner to her, that's why she's sorry. She's my nakama and you're... whatever the hell we are that doesn't have a name, so you're important to her even though she doesn't know you. So 'corner' is what you are but if you want to be close to her in your own right then you mean 'friend' I think.” Zoro answeres in mixed Baratian and Tsukian. 

“I want us to be friend.” Sanji says earnestly. 

“Friends. You have a friend but together you're friends. Singular and group.” Zoro corrects out of habit. 

“You knew what I fucking meant, you moss brained moron!” Sanji growls, still in Tsukian, and kicks him in the ankle with force enough to make his point. 

“You asked me to help, I'm helping!” He argues back. 

“Giving me the words was helping, correcting me was being a jackass!” Sanji retorts, their voices getting louder. 

“Sorry, I only speak Tsukian and Baratian, I don't speak 'whining asshole', try again.” He yells. 

The two of them are cut off by a laugh from Nami that she doesn't even bother to hide. She's looking brightly between the two of them, her mirth obvious and her opinion of Sanji clearly higher.

“Oh, you and I are definitely going to be friends. Anyone who shouts at Zoro like that has to be.” Nami laughs and punches Sanji playfully in the shoulder. Sanji flushes red in embarrassment at arguing in front of a lady. Sanji is going to be in for a big surprise when he sees just how much Nami doesn't act like a Baratian lady. She's already rebellious for a Tsukian lady who likes screwing around with Zoro's culture to confuse idiots back home, she's going to have so much fun with him. She's not really Tsukian and she's not really a Mikan either. She's just... Nami.

“You said Luffy and the others were somewhere they shouldn't be?” Zoro cuts in, hoping to delay his doom at least a little. 

“Yeah, they're round the back, they went through the servant's entrance and they're knights.” Sanji complains, seemingly scandalized. 

“They don't know or care, Luffy especially. Come on, let's hope they didn't get to your kitchen yet.” Zoro says with a shrug. 

“My kitchen. They're going to go in my... I'll just go on ahead, give Nami my apologies!” Sanji says in panicked Baratian and sprints off. 

“Come on.” He says to Nami, jerking his head in the right direction.

“I just got here and I know that's the wrong way, your husband went this way, idiot.” Nami sighs and pulls him off in a different direction. 

“You two bicker like an old married couple. I like him. You need taking down a peg or two sometimes. Having more people not afraid to kick your ass will be good for you.” Nami beams at him, her catlike smile going right across her face unnervingly. 

“I hate you, you witch.” He grumbles unhappily. 

“What's that? It sounds like you owing me more favors.” Nami says in her sing-song voice that never means good things for him.

“I asked you for a favor ONE TIME Nami! I was FOURTEEN!” He yells in exasperation.

“Yeah, but there was interest, now you owe me lots of favors.” She says happily.

“That is not how favors work!” He protests, throwing his hands up in the air. 

“You owe me another one now.” Nami says firmly and Zoro screams in anger. He had missed Nami, he had. It's just that right now he can't remember why that was.


	10. Chapter 10

“OUT!” Sanji yells at the top of his lungs and kicks the dark haired man into the wall opposite the kitchen. He is already down two loaves of bread, half a wheel of cheese and a cold chicken leg. The man slams into the wall opposite so hard that the stone actually cracks. He spins and kicks the next one right in the face and lands him right on top of the first one.

Sanji's blood runs cold when he sees the symbol on the two men’s clothes. They might be casually dressed, but when he looks at the first man a little closer his shirt carries the Shimotsuki national flag embroidered subtly on his chest, the guy he kicked second has it on his belt. The two guys standing by the door look horrified at Sanji's actions. He just... he just attacked two official Shimotsuki knights! What was he thinking?! He freezes, heart caught in his throat until Zoro's voice comes and shatters the moment.

“Hey! Johnny, Yosaku! And… Ace? Luffy? What’re you two doing there?” Zoro calls out, his happiness turning to confusion. He appears in Sanji's view from the doorway, Nami at his side. The two guys who were looking scandalized suddenly snap out of it and fling themselves at Zoro with a joint yell that Sanji thinks might mean brother.

“Where’s Kaku?” Zoro asks with a frown, looking at the group. 

“He was with the horses he- oh!” Nami cuts out suddenly when a long nosed man walks up to the group.

“Kaku!” Zoro exclaims cheerfully and slaps the man on the shoulder. 

“Did you miss me?” The man asks with a smile.

“Of course.” Zoro laughs, clearly pleased at seeing all of his friends again.

The boy on the floor with the dark hair and the straw hat looks up at Zoro and says something in such a rapid burst of Tsukian and with such a whine in his voice that Sanji can't understand him.

“Yeah, and it's been a long trip!” The guy with the cowboy hat and no shirt on complains, in a slower and more intelligible voice.

“Well MAYBE you two shouldn't be breaking into other people's kitchens!” Nami snaps and kicks her foot into the first guy's face, smearing his cheek and nose across the wall in a way that shouldn't be possible. Sanji gasps, the guy's got to be dead! But low and behold he looks up at her with his open and non smushed eye and whines distorted words out at her through comically stretched lips.

“I don't CARE!” Nami snaps in response and takes her foot off of him, his face springing back to normal like nothing ever happened. She then slams her foot down on the man across the first knight's lap who bursts into a cloud of flames in his back where her foot went through him.

“Devil's fruit users...” Sanji says slowly, realizing just what he's looking at.

“Yeah! Both of us are!” The boy says brightly, having shook off what should have been a fatal injury without batting and eyelid. Also apparently devil's fruit is the same in both languages, which is odd because 'fruit' isn't the same word in Tsukian. He'll figure that out later though.

By this point Robin and Usopp have shown up. Robin and Nami embrace enthusiastically but Usopp lingers at the edge of the group warily.

“I've never met a devil's fruit user before.” Sanji says in awe.

“You really have.” Zoro responds in flat and unimpressed Baratian.

“No I haven't.” Sanji counters with a glare. He would know if he had.

Someone taps him on the shoulder and Sanji turns around to see Robin... tapping him on the shoulder and she suddenly has... three arms.

“AGH!” Sanji yells in surprise and both of the fallen men laugh loudly. Robin laughs delicately and waves her extra limb away with a cloud of petals.

“You never... I didn't know.” Sanji stumbles over his words in shock.

“You should never show your hand too early Sanji.” Robin smiles at him.

“Was... was that a joke?” Zoro asks warily, uncertain about puns in another language, but Robin just laughs in response.

“What're you saying? I'm gonna go get some meat.” The boy in the straw hat says in his own language, interrupting the previously Baratian conversation, getting to his feet and heading towards Sanji.

“No you DON'T!” Sanji snaps in Tsukian, digging his heel into the guy's chest and shoving him back into the wall roughly, where he stumbles over the other guy who was still on the floor and then trips over again.

“HEY!” Zeff yells, making all of them jump. The King stomps his way through the kitchen staff who were all staring at the ruckus between all of them instead of working. The man's wooden leg and boot stamp on the floor until he reaches the door, his moustache quivering in rage.

“Uh, sorry about them.” Zoro mumbles, looking at the King wide eyed.

Zoro hasn't had much interaction with Sanji's father and a lot of it has been formal or not completely friendly. He probably thinks that the old man doesn't like him, but he's wrong, Zeff is just that much of a bastard to everyone. Sometimes more if he likes you.

“These are your knights?” Zeff demands, jabbing a finger in their direction.

“Uh, yes. This is Johnny and Yosaku, that's Kaku, Nami is the woman, the guy on the floor is Ace and the idiot Sanji just kicked is his brother and the Captain Luffy.” Zoro says in a meek tone that Sanji has never ever heard from Zoro before. The guy might actually be embarrassed over the behaviour of his men.

“Charming. Get them away from my GOD DAMNED KITCHEN!” Zeff bellows at Zoro who winces and reaches over to collar the two protesting brothers and drag them behind him. Zeff scowls at them and turns to walk away.

“What's his problem?” Ace whispers unhappily.

“Grumpy chef maybe?” The other boy shrugs and peers over Zoro's shoulder into the kitchen, licking his lips.

“Hah, that told you!” Sanji laughs, pointing at Zoro who scowls at him.

“And YOU! Stop attacking foreign military, you'll cause an international incident, shitty brat!” Zeff yells in Sanji's ear, yanking him back by his hair and down so that Sanji nearly needs to bend completely in half to stop his neck breaking. Zeff lets him go with a shove and Sanji straightens up, rubbing the back of his head and flipping Zeff off behind his back.

“Hah, that told you.” Zoro echoes in a smug but quieter voice so that Zeff doesn't hear him.

“Shut it, spinach brain!” Sanji snaps at him.

“Make me, dartboard!” Zoro barks back.

“BOTH OF YOU OUT OF MY KITCHEN. NOW!” Zeff roars and this time Sanji backs off into the hallway, his back bumping into Zoro's chest. There are times when Zeff is yelling for show and there are times when it is really REALLY real. This is one of those times. The door slams shut, the heavy oak shuddering.

“Great. Thanks for that.” Sanji grumbles and elbows Zoro in the stomach.

“Hey, he's not bein' very respectful to our prince.” Sanji hears from one of the first two guys who hugged Zoro. He turns around but he can't see which one said it, but both are scowling at him.

“He's a prince too, so he doesn't count.” Zoro says in his native language with a shrug. Sanji has been able to understand most of what's been going on but the cacophony of speech, but the exclamations and arguing that accompany the knights bowing to him completely goes over his head. The captain had to be dragged down into bowing because he hadn't been paying attention and suddenly Sanji feels weird about all of it. Zoro however seems to find it far too funny and it only just managing to suppress his laughter.

“I'm glad that you think this is funny.” Sanji says darkly in Baratian. He’s got into the habit of not watching his tone with Zoro. In Baratian it just wouldn’t be done to speak to a prince that way even as a prince it would be highly improper, but his tone in Tsukian is just displeased and sarcastic. So though he’s not speaking Zoro’s language he’s speaking as if it was. Perhaps between them they’re making their own way of talking. 

“It is funny.” Zoro sniggers, leaning his arm on Sanji’s shoulder. 

Sanji hears the others talking amongst themselves, there’s so much chatter in Tsukian that once there’s more than one or two people speaking Sanji can’t understand a lick of it. He’s just getting a stream of unconnected words and it’s making him tense up all over. This was just the kind of thing that he was afraid of. 

“Come on, we’ll show you where you’ll stay.” Zoro says and jerks his head down the corridor. Usopp slips his way in front of them and leads the way with Zoro and Sanji just behind and the rest of Zoro’s party behind them. 

“Should I say sorry for kicking your knights? They were trying to get into my kitchen so they absolutely deserved it but they’re yours and-” Sanji says, trying to keep his worry under control, not that the Tsukians probably have any idea of how he feels if how hard Zoro used to find reading him was any indication. 

“What? Luffy and Ace? They need their asses kicking!” Zoro shouts the latter half of his sentence in Tsukian and the two men in question burst out laughing. No hard feelings then it seems. 

“There’s too much talking and I can’t understand all of them at once.” Sanji admits quietly and Zoro’s expression becomes more serious. This is close to what he confessed to Zoro earlier, something that’s a big deal to him and is an even bigger deal to Zoro. 

“They’re being loud anyway, they’re mostly just talking to each-” Zoro says quietly in Baratian but then abruptly stops speaking. Sanji frowns and listens, though it’s hard to pick anything up in the cacophony of speech behind him. 

“-a joke. It has to be… the way that he… how he looks?! It’s a joke, he’s a joke.” 

“Zoro wouldn’t joke… not a liar!”

Sanji swallows thickly, there’s bits he’s missing but he gets the gist of it. They think that he’s a joke compared to them, that he’s weak and no match for Zoro, that it’s laughable that Zoro would be with him. Either they think that Zoro is pretending that some random person is the prince or they think that Sanji is a joke altogether.

“But look at him-”

Sanji hears a low snarl and then abruptly Zoro is facing the other way, two quick steps and he is almost nose to nose with one of his knights, though considering the nose on the guy it puts him a little further away from Zoro than it would for most people. The guy could give Usopp a run for his money in the unusual nose department.

“Shit, Kaku, just say-” One of the original four knights says quickly, though not the ones that Sanji knows as Luffy or Ace. Zoro silences them with a raise of a hand and the air becomes tense.

“Say that again.” Zoro demands and that is absolutely a demand, even in Zoro’s interrogative and harsh sounding language that is a demand for sure. 

“I wasn’t trying to step out of line Zoro- sir.” The man corrects hastily. 

“Say. That. AGAIN. Kaku.” Zoro growls and Sanji watches as everyone around the two men takes a good half step back, though they’re all watching the exchange intensely. Sanji remembers the little standoff that Robin and Zoro had at the ball before, this is a million times more intense than that. 

“I said that it’s a joke. That he’s… that he’s a joke. I mean look at him, I could have stabbed him ten times already, he’s got no armour he’s unarmed and-”

“And I could STILL kick your ass!” Sanji snaps out. He’s got no idea where that came from. He’d been ashamed and small and hurt by everything but hearing him openly say that to Zoro just snapped something in him. Shit, now they’re all looking at him wide eyed. The guy who was insulting him seems shocked but Sanji sees the hint of a smirk at the edge of Zoro’s mouth. 

“Sanji, Sanji you do realise that you essentially just challenged this guy to a duel in all but name, right?” Usopp hisses urgent Baratian in Sanji’s ear. 

“I’m not going to let him talk about me like that, if-” Sanji starts to say, but he doesn’t want to say it out loud. If he lets Zoro fight all of his battles for him then he will be weak. What he and Zoro have is unsure and essentially unnameable in either of their languages but he wants it and he’s not going to get to keep it if he acts weak, if he acts like Zoro has to stand up for him. Zoro has already started threatening his own knight to defend him but Sanji has to prove his point too. 

“Sanji, this is really dumb. Zoro can tell him that you didn’t mean it, he can’t argue with him after what he said, you don’t need to fight this guy.” Usopp says quickly and from the way that Zoro is looking at them he knows that Zoro is listening too. 

“You don’t think that I can.” Sanji states in Tsukian, looking at the guy directly. Usopp whines unhappily behind Sanji. 

Zoro looks between the two of them and then steps out of the way from in between them, getting to about the distance from this guy that the others are. The message is clear even to Sanji, this is his fight now, Sanji has made his stand and interfering wouldn’t help. The guy looks completely shocked, his mouth hanging open slightly as he stares at Sanji in complete bafflement.

“Don’t ignore a prince when he talks to you.” Zoro snaps and the guy jumps slightly. 

“No. I know you can’t.” The man says tersely. 

“So. Are you going to take back what you said or am I going to have to prove you wrong?” Sanji asks darkly.

Irritatingly the angry response the guy gives is something that Sanji doesn’t understand, but Zoro does. 

“Fine. Robin, come with me so we can show them where they’re staying. Sanji and Usopp go back to our wing and be in the courtyard in half an hour.” Zoro says simply and with a nod Robin points the group down a different hallway. That’ll take them a slightly obscure route to the quarters that the knights will stay in, but it’s a route that won’t meet up with the one that Sanji and Usopp are going in. Zoro leads their group in the direction but Nami and Robin hang at the end with Nami watching him with a studious gaze. 

“I see it alright.” She says quietly, but Sanji hears her nonetheless.

“You can see why it’s been so fast, right?” Robin answers as they walk away and Sanji suspects that he was meant to hear that one. Robin was the one who urged Zoro to talk to him that morning, the talk that led to the explanation of what it meant to know someone. Has Robin been paying attention to how their relationship has developed and encouraging it along?

Sanji shakes his head, he doesn’t have the space in his head to think about that. He turns around and heads back to his room with Usopp on his tail. 

“What are you doing Sanji?!” Usopp balks in horror. 

“You heard what he said.” Sanji responds, his boots clicking on the floor. 

“Yeah, it was rude and Zoro was dealing with it. He’s his knight!” Usopp replies sharply. 

“He’s a knight of Shimotsuki and I’m a prince of Shimotsuki now. If I let some knight badmouth me on day one then what the hell is the point? And I don’t want Zoro to-” Sanji cuts himself off with a hiss. 

Usopp stops walking and stares at him wide eyed. 

“You’re not doing this because you want the knight to respect you, you’re doing this so that Zoro will respect you, or to show off to him or something.” Usopp says in a stunned voice. Sanji winces because it sounds bad and childish when it’s put like that, doesn’t it?

“Zoro already respects me.” Sanji says, technically not answering the question.

“That doesn’t mean that you’re not doing it to impress him! Sanji- augh-” Usopp cuts himself off because there are people coming down the hallway and though the two of them are good friends they shouldn’t be arguing with each other in the hallway. 

The pair of them walk quickly to their wing of the palace and as soon as the door is shut behind them Usopp is on him again. 

“Zoro respects you, you know that. But I know how you look at him, if you’re trying to make him fall for you then you ought to know that you’re doing a good enough job already. I’ve seen how he looks at you too, Robin and I both have. There’s no point trying to impressing him, you’re already married to him! This fight isn’t going to make him suddenly change his feelings for you but if you lose then how do you think that that knight and the others are going to see you?” Usopp demands. 

Sanji pauses on the way to his room and turns to look at Usopp.

“So I won’t lose.” Sanji says after a moment and heads into his room.

“That- of course you don’t intend to lose but it doesn’t mean that it’s not possible!” Usopp calls after him despairingly and follows Sanji into the room. 

Sanji sighs and opens his wardrobe, this guy was laughing at how he looked, thought that he looked like a joke. Zoro said that Tsukians were always prepared for battle, so if he suddenly changes into something more fitting for a fight then he’s admitting that he was unprepared before. Like hell is he going to do that. Still he wishes that he had better boots than he has on now. Oh, his white boots are better for this, sturdier at the bottom but fancy too. In fact, he can kick his guy’s ass in them and then wear them to dinner just to remind him of it. Perfect. 

“Oh, great, you’re going to show up to a duel with this guy wearing almost entirely white. Good plan.” Usopp groans, sitting on the bed with his face in his hands. 

“Why? What’s wrong with white?” Sanji asks with a frown and holding up the boots. He likes these boots, he wore them to his first ball with Zoro, when Zoro threatened his cousin and they kissed against the wall in the ballroom. They’re nice boots damnit.

“White is a colour that is seen as… passive I suppose.” Usopp sighs, looking up at Sanji despairingly. 

“You don’t go into a fight wearing white because it’ll get dirty, everyone knows that. So if you wear white then you’re saying that you’re not going to fight anyone, that you’re unprepared or that you can’t. It’s a sort of… innocent fragile colour.” Usopp explains uneasily, trying to translate knowledge that he has in his head from one language to another. 

Sanji brightens, white boots it is! He shucks off his current boots and puts the new ones on, making Usopp moan in despair and fall back on the bed. 

“If you lose-” Usopp tries again, with a note of despair in his tone.

“I’m not going to lose.” Sanji answers easily. 

“Right. Let me try this another way. Zoro is strong, right?” Usopp reasons, sitting up and looking at Sanji firmly.

“Obviously.” Sanji snorts. Was that ever even in question? One look at the man’s rippling muscles ought to tell anyone that, not to mention his skill, strength and speed when they spar. Zoro was a strong and capable fighter and boy did it ever show. 

“Sanji, come back to me. Geez.” Usopp says, snapping his fingers in front of Sanji’s face. 

“If Zoro is strong then don’t you think that his handpicked knights will be too?” the other man reasons. 

“Yes, but I’ll be stronger.” Sanji nods and tightens the last knot on his boot. 

“Oh man, I’m coming down with the I-can’t-watch-this disease. Hopefully it kills me before your father does for letting you do something so dumb. Remember all that diplomacy? Remember that?” Usopp whines.

“Fuck diplomacy, I’m gonna kick that guy’s ass.” Sanji says succinctly and Usopp whines like he’s in pain. He still follows Sanji out into the courtyard though. 

“It’s not like I can even tell you to back down, surrendering would be just as bad.” Usopp complains, sitting on one of the stone table tops.

“So why are you still talking about it?” Sanji asks with a sigh and shuts his eyes. The sun is still warm on his skin and it wasn’t that long ago at all that Zoro had been basking out here in the sunshine. Now Sanji is about to fight one of his knights in the same place. He will win, he has to. He’s not going to lose his head, he’s going to win. That bastard is underestimating him. Sanji knows that Zoro wouldn’t have him around if he wasn’t strong so Sanji knows he’s not fighting some weakling. This guy however seems to think that Zoro got married to some lightweight. He intends to disabuse him of that notion real quickly and hopefully win the fight before the guy even knows what hit him. He hadn’t even been there when Sanji had kicked those other two out of his kitchen, shit, their names were… Luffy and… Ace? He’s all but forgotten in the whirl of this fight. 

Sanji doesn’t have any more time to think because Zoro and his knights come around the corner along with Robin. He supposes that technically Robin is one of his knights too, but as she’s been with Zoro the whole time he feels differently about her. Zoro leans against the wall and a bunch of the other knights do the same, out of the way but absolutely spectating the whole thing. Sanji straightens up but the guy looks at him in disbelief with a hint of disgust. He turns to Zoro and says something so fast and tinged with emotion that Sanji can’t quite make it out, not more than the occasional word anyway. Something about bringing something?

“What’s he saying?” Sanji asks softly.

“It’s- hold on.” Usopp says distractedly as Zoro replies. 

“He doesn’t have one.” Zoro responds and the knight’s face contorts a little more and this time he can’t understand a word that he’s saying. 

“The knight thought that you weren’t going to fight from what you were wearing and the fact that you’re unarmed.” Usopp says lowly. 

“I don’t use a weapon though.” Sanji frowns.

“That’s what Zoro’s trying to tell him but he seems to be taking it that you’re saying that you don’t need one to beat him, I kinda get why he’s taking it that way considering as he’s wearing armour and armed and you’re neither.” Usopp answers him. Sanji refrains from pointing out that he doesn’t need armour or a weapon to beat him and he’s going to do just that. 

He grins and pushes himself away from the table that Usopp is on and towards the guy. He stuffs his hands in his pockets and grins at him. 

“I don’t even know your name.” Sanji says to the knight in Tsukian.

“Kaku.” The man says tersely in a voice that would be highly punishable in Baratian. Well, he is about to get punished by a Baratian so it amounts to the same thing. 

“Back off and don’t kill each other.” Zoro says firmly and Sanji and Kaku both take a step back. Zoro flicks him a look and raises an eyebrow, Sanji grins wide in response and Zoro sighs and shakes his head.

“Begin.” Is all that Zoro has to say. 

Kaku looks at Sanji again, clearly insulted by Sanji’s casual posture, the way he has his hands in his pockets and his smug grin. Sanji wants to make him mad. He’s got his suspicions that the guy is left handed like Zoro, from the way that he’s been gesturing he’s about 90% sure. Sanji waits and then, yes, then Kaku rolls his eyes and Sanji moves easily dodging Kaku’s left handed sword strike.

He leaps and plants one white boot in the guy’s shoulder and pivots, using the other foot to kick him hard enough in the left wrist to make him drop his sword. He’s quick enough to react that Sanji isn’t able to kick it completely away, but it’s out of his range unless the guy wants to back up a hell of a lot or turn his back on Sanji. 

Kaku looks at Sanji like he just grew a second head. Well, that kind of shock would cost him time. Sanji takes his hands out of his pockets and puts his power into his hip slamming his foot right into Kaku’s solar plexus and flinging him across the courtyard with a smash. 

“I guess I’ll keep this then.” Sanji says brightly, snagging Kaku’s sword off of the ground and jamming it in between the paving slabs off to the side. If he wants it he’s going to have to work hard to get it out without damaging the blade. 

Kaku leaps from one side of the courtyard to the other, down to one blade but a hell of a lot faster than Sanji had expected- SHIT! Sanji dodges but feels his shirtsleeve tear a little as the blade passes him, that could have cut his arm off! Sanji is done playing. 

Kaku jumps for him again and Sanji stands his ground, he uses the flexibility that Zoro was so impressed with on their first spar to duck under Kaku’s remaining blade and plant his foot in his chest, then he twists, shifting his leg from straight vertical into an arc downwards into the floor. He slams the bastard into the stone slabs of the floor so hard that they shatter under him, his heel driven right into the man’s solar plexus. He spots the twinge of Kaku’s sword, an attempt to stab Sanji in retaliation, so he redistributes his weight to the foot in Kaku’s torso and kicks the blade so hard that it spins across the courtyard and embeds itself in a now not so neatly manicured hedge. He shifts his weight off of Kaku’s chest and pins one of his arms down with his other foot. If he wanted to he could break the man’s ribs or at the very least his wrist. 

“Match. Sanji, get off of him. Kaku, you lost. Robin, could you get a doctor for me? Kaku will probably need something.” Zoro says in Tsukian. Sanji hops off of Kaku easily, but keeps out of range in case the guy is a sore loser. 

Kaku rolls onto his side, clutching his stomach and glaring at Sanji. He moves to get his sword but Zoro stops him.

“I’ve got your swords, I’ll look after them.” Zoro says gently and Kaku nods. 

Sanji raises an eyebrow at his defeated opponent, he wants to make some smug remark about ‘who’s a joke now’, but it seems a little classless. It’s strange though, Sanji would have thought that in a very combat adoring culture like Zoro’s that there would be some protocol for losing a duel. Maybe a verbal recognition of skill or something. The others are all still watching Kaku and- oh! He’s bowing to Sanji. Sanji looks wide eyed at Zoro and starts to mouth ‘should I?’, after all aren’t bows often returned? Will not bowing back be a snub or something? Zoro shakes his head minutely and Sanji stays put. 

Kaku straightens up again and then unevenly walks off, his hands by his sides but Sanji can see that he’s hurt. Robin leads him in the right direction with and out of sight into the palace again. 

“Wow, did you see his face?!” The bare chested guy in the hat says loudly after Kaku is gone. Damn, that one is either Luffy or Ace, he’s not sure which is which. 

“Since when does Kaku get that angry that easily?” Nami wonders aloud. 

“Sanji you’re really strong!” The other of the pair exclaims, leaping at Sanji with a bright and almost childlike expression on his face. 

“Uh, thank you.” Sanji says with a nod.

“I like the way you say that! You say it funny, it’s cool!” The guy laughs merrily. 

“It’s called an accent Luffy, don’t be dumb.” The other one says. He must be Ace then, and the one bouncing enthusiastically in front of him must be-

“Luffy, calm down already.” Zoro laughs, ruffling the guy’s hair. 

“Yeah Luffy, just because he can cook doesn’t-” Sanji doesn’t understand the rest of Nami’s sentence, it’s words he hasn’t heard before, stupid language with a large vocabulary. Either way, it makes Luffy laugh loudly and Zoro yell ‘NAMI!’ at her in an agitated tone. 

“Yeah, you’ll get to eat tonight, at the big feast.” Ace nods.

“I need to talk to the King and see if there’s going to be a feast tonight or if it’s tomorrow.” Usopp says in Baratian.

“Why wouldn’t there be a feast? He was working on it earlier.” Sanji frowns.

“Well, you did just duel a knight and kick him in the chest within an hour of the King telling you not to cause a diplomatic incident. Plus it was late when they arrived anyway, it’s for him to decide though.” Usopp answers flatly. 

“He started it.” Sanji reasons. Usopp looks neither impressed nor convinced.

“So, what? You’re going to rat on me to my old man?” Sanji asks with a glare. 

“No, you’re right. I think it’d be a far better idea for me to keep information or lie to the King about you technically attacking the representative of another country.” Usopp says with a pained groan. 

“I don’t think that sounds like a better idea. Sanji you should probably talk to the King.” Zoro points out.

“He was being a sarcastic little shit, Zoro. The thinks that fighting was dumb.” Sanji explains with a roll of his eyes. 

“Oh. Damn, I thought I’d got the sarcasm thing, but I think I can still only really tell when it’s you.” Zoro frowns. Sanji isn’t surprised, unless it’s contextually obvious that it’s sarcasm or is massively overblown then often it sails right over Zoro’s head, in Baratian sarcasm is very tone dependent. 

“Maybe because Sanji is always sarcastic.” Usopp points out and jumps off of the table and walks over to Sanji, peering at Kaku’s discarded sword still jammed between the slabs where Sanji had left it. 

“Maybe I should kick your ass in line better, Zoro’s knights seem to respect his-” Sanji starts to say but when he glances around at Zoro he finds that Nami is pulling Zoro’s head around to look at her with one finger in Zoro’s cheek to make him look at her regardless as to if he wants to or not. She’s berating him in quick fire Tsukian for something or another. At his side Luffy and Ace are about dying with laughter. So much for that.

“Okay, I’ll go talk to Zeff.” Sanji grumbles unhappily and stalks off out of the courtyard. 

 

When he gets to see his old man he quietly explains that there was a minor disagreement that had to be settled and because it’s Zoro’s custom it had to be a duel and of course he won and-

And at that point Zeff tries to kick him in the face. Tries and succeeds. 

The final verdict, after much yelling, is that the feast will be tomorrow night with a ball of any one noble or liked enough that can make it on such short notice. Considering how much some of Sanji’s cousins like a party he’s pretty sure that it’ll be a full house, though he’d be surprised if Abasalom shows up again.

There is however more than enough food prepared for Luffy and the rest of the knights to keep them happy and Zoro says that he wants to spend a fair part of the evening with them and Sanji thinks that’s fair. Zoro’s knights are clearly his closest friends, after all didn’t Zoro say that they were his nakama? If so it’s more than reasonable for him to want to spend time with them without having to translate for Sanji. 

Instead Sanji has a tense and argumentative meal with Zeff. He finally manages to get the old man to see exactly why he had to fight Kaku and though his old man quite obviously doesn’t approve, and really he couldn’t condone that kind of thing, he does seem to be amused at Sanji’s description of how well he handed that knight his ass. 

After that when he returns to their wing of the palace Zoro still isn’t there Sanji decides to take a bath, something nice and long and hot to soothe himself. When he gets out he’s suitably calmer and doesn’t even think much of it when he’s half dressed for bed and running a towel though his hair and a knock comes on his door. 

“Come in.” He says idly, expecting it to be Usopp letting him know that he’s back and going to bed. When Sanji had got back from his dinner with the old geezer Usopp had been nowhere around. It’s not Usopp though, it’s Zoro. Sanji straightens in surprise, his hands coming down from his head and about himself one arm wrapped over the other in a kind of kneejerk modesty. Sure you could argue that some of Sanji’s shirts show a fair bit of his skin, but he’s completely shirtless and in nothing more than his sleeping trousers. 

“Are you TERRIBLY WOUNDED?!” Zoro demands coming further into the room and striding up to Sanji suddenly. 

“Tone, Zoro, tone.” Sanji reminds him, he’s clearly not terribly wounded, is he?

“Uh. Are you… hurt?” Zoro amends, forcing the alarm out of his tone and dialling down the severity of Sanji’s theoretical injury. 

“No, he just tore my shirt, look.” Sanji says, putting his towel down and grabbing his shirt from his desk where he’d left it. It’s possible that it could be repaired though Sanji highly doubts it. Zoro doesn’t seem to give a shit about the gash in his shirt though, his hand is on the arm that Sanji had nearly been hit on, the arm that his shirt got ruined on. Zoro twists his arm slightly to see and then runs his fingers over Sanji’s bath warmed and still slightly damp skin.

“Not a scratch…” Zoro murmurs in his own language. 

“I wouldn’t lose.” Sanji says back before his brain catches up. 

“I mean… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have argued with one of your knights. It’s the first time that I met them and I go and cause a big incident and I’m sure there’s lots of cultural stuff that-” Sanji starts but Zoro puts his hand over Sanji’s mouth. 

“Are you sorry? Do you regret challenging him?” Zoro asks him, watching Sanji intently. 

Sanji winces. He shouldn’t have done it, Usopp and his old man were right, he was always starting fights or speaking out of tone and he shouldn’t do it. 

“Don’t lie, do you wish that you had not done it?” Zoro repeats and takes his hand slowly from Sanji’s mouth. 

Sanji looks at Zoro, he knows that he should be sorry, that he was out of line, that it was rude and wrong and-

“No.” He breathes quietly.

“He was pissing me off, I was afraid that they would laugh at me and then he called me a joke and I couldn’t stand that- I know that I’m supposed to be calm and diplomatic but I snapped and proving him wrong felt so good. I’m not a joke but it was just the words of one knight that I don’t even know, that he didn’t even know that I could hear or understand and I should have just let it go or let you deal with it, I know that.” Sanji hisses angrily. 

“You are very strange.” Zoro says slowly and leans in to Sanji’s space and kisses him softly. Sanji hears himself go ‘oh’ and drops the towel and touches Zoro’s arms, his fingers winding around Zoro’s biceps. 

“A man who had no right to speak to you like that insulted you, repeatedly, it was your right to challenge him. Stop saying ‘should’.” Zoro tells him, switching from Tsukian back to Baratian at the last word to emphasise his point. Zoro kisses him again and Sanij’s will to argue drains out of him. 

“I… I owe you an apology.” Zoro says after a few exchanged kisses. 

Sanji watches Zoro in confusion and sees conflict play out over the features of the man that he’s in… something with. Whatever it is that they are beyond just politically married. Zoro isn’t meeting his eyes and is instead glaring at a spot in the carpet off to the side. 

“One of my men insulted you, badly. With Nami it was different, she was frustrated for her nakama but even so-” Zoro starts to apologise.

“Yeah, and I challenged one of your nakama to a duel and beat him. That was out of line for me, wasn’t it?” Sanji frowns. 

“Kaku and I aren’t nakama.” Zoro says, pulling back and looking at Sanji wide eyed. He then laughs in surprise at the look of confusion on Sanji’s face. 

“No, we’re friends. He’s a good fighter, fast too. Though… not as fast as you are.” Zoro says, his thumb running over the place where Sanji could have been injured but wasn’t. Sanji gets the distinct hint from the way Zoro’s voice goes deeper with that last sentence that as Zoro is the prince of a warrior culture winning a fight like that might be seen as romantic or something.

“So I didn’t do anything wrong?” Sanji clarifies. He wants to know so that he can stop agonising about it in his head, going back and forth between feeling like he was out of line and feeling like he should have ground Kaku’s face into the ground for insulting him like that. 

“Nothing. Watching you fight was…” Zoro trails off and Sanji feels a shiver run through Zoro in a way that gets Sanji’s interest. He thinks smugly that Usopp doesn’t know what he’s talking about when he says that there’s no need to impress Zoro. Zoro shakes his head, deciding not to voice whatever he felt watching Sanji fight was like.

“Come with me. The celebration isn’t until tomorrow, so tonight.” Zoro nods, explaining nothing at all as he pulls Sanji from his room and across the main room into Zoro’s own. Sanji is sure that his whole body flushes red, what is Zoro dragging him in here for?! Were they expected to have… have consummated their marriage before they got to Zoro’s country or before Zoro’s people got to him? Was that what this was about? Or perhaps Zoro was that impressed that he wants to show him just how much he liked the fight.

When Zoro lets Sanji go to pick something up out of his travelling chest Sanji’s heart thumps for an entirely different reason. Zoro has his thick ink paint and his delicate brush in his hand. After Zoro’s admission that this was usually only done between people who know each other, which in Sanji’s language the closest word is soulmates, then having Zoro stand there with that in his hand makes his heart hammer and his breath catch. 

“The ink needs time to dry before you sleep.” Sanji says in his own language. 

“It changes to darker black colour over the night too. Come here.” Zoro urges him, pulling Sanji towards him and then down to the ground. 

Sanji kneels with Zoro, but when he reaches for the bottle and brush in Zoro’s hand the other prince pulls it back. Sanji’s heart sinks a little, did he do something wrong?

“You’re going first.” Zoro says firmly, with a grin playing around his lips. 

“I don’t understand.” Sanji replies with a frown, Zoro was speaking in Tsukian there so maybe Sanji misunderstood something there. He doesn’t think so though. 

“You need one too now.” Zoro says holding up the brush in his hand to make his point. 

Sanji opens his mouth to protest, but stops himself. The marks are for battles won and presumably there has to have been some proof or witness to a battle to earn a mark and Sanji did just destroy Kaku in front of all of them. But do duels count or is it just military victories? But if Zoro is saying that he should give him one then surely…?

“For Kaku?” Sanji clarifies and Zoro tilts his head and fixes Sanji with one of his best ‘What are you? Stupid?’ looks. 

“I thought waves. Calm, powerful but… brutal.” Zoro suggests, meeting Sanji’s eyes. Sanji is pretty sure that his whole face is red now. He tries to scramble his thoughts together to come up with a coherent reply but evidently the pause is a little too long because Zoro takes his hand back with a frown.

“If you want. You don’t forced to make you do it.” Zoro says, his voice going tense and screwing up the meaning in Baratian. 

“Stick to your own language if you’re gonna be tense.” Sanji replies quickly, the argument coming to his lips far more readily than what he should be saying. He catches Zoro’s hand again anyway. 

“You want to do this to me? Even after everything we said?” Sanji asks carefully. Now that they both knew that this is a huge gesture, not to mention that this would be seen by people who did know its meaning it seems like something they should talk about. 

“I want to.” Zoro says, though the real question remains unsaid in the air. Does Sanji want to as well?

“Waves sounds great.” Sanji says and turns his hand palm up in Zoro’s the inside of his wrist facing upwards. Sanji should be a little unnerved by this. His hands are precious to him, he’s a cook as well as a prince and he doesn’t trust them lightly. From the look on Zoro’s face he’s pretty sure that the other man knows that. Sanji is right handed and it’s his right wrist that he’s placed in Zoro’s grip. 

Zoro coughs nervously and nods, making Sanji grin. Nervousness is not an expression that he thinks he’s ever really seen on Zoro before, or at least not this kind. 

Zoro uncorks the bottle of thick dark ink. The texture of it when it’s fresh reminds Sanji almost of syrup, but when it dries it becomes harder, crispy almost. The ink inside leeches into the skin that it’s on, leaving the rest of the mix behind to be washed off. Zoro doesn’t put his brush in right away and instead focuses on Sanji’s wrist, turning his hand this way and that, looking at it and running his thumb over the bones in Sanji’s wrist. 

When the cool ink touches Sanji’s skin for the first time he finds himself relaxing even more, his hand and wrist loose and relaxed in Zoro’s grip with most of the weight of his lower arm supported on Sanji’s own knee. Zoro starts by drawing an impressively straight line all around Sanji’s wrist. From there Zoro dips his brush again and, tilting it slightly, he makes an arch inside of Sanji’s wrist, only an inch or so long. It’s a curve that looks almost like calligraphy with the way that it goes from thick to thin and Sanji finds himself reminded of Zoro’s flowing pictographic writing script. Zoro moves from the crest of the drawn curve down in an inwards curve again, his line delicate and thin this time. Sanji sees it right away, three lines in and he sees the wave that Zoro had been talking about. It’s a curled wave, cresting and about to break. Zoro is shading under it with lines and it’s only when Sanji spots that Zoro’s cheeks are reddening slightly that he realises that it’s three thin lines doing the shading. Three is Zoro’s number. Three earrings, three swords, his marks last time were in bands of three. Three. Zoro is putting himself into Sanji’s mark subtly and Sanji really gets why this is something intimate and important. 

He relaxes further as Zoro continues to draw wave after wave above the straight band that he drew on Sanji’s wrist. He wraps the design around Sanji’s skin like fine jewellery and the more he does it the calmer and more at home Sanji feels. When Zoro is done Sanji takes a few long seconds to admire Zoro’s handiwork before leaning in and kissing him slow and soft. The other man is so responsive to it, his hands tangling in Sanji’s hair and despite how badly the cook wants to take that further he knows that they have more important things to do. He takes the brush from Zoro’s hand and leans back again, surveying his husband’s body. 

“Thirty five…” Sanji says thoughtfully. 

“You remembered.” Zoro responds quietly, sounding… touched perhaps?

“Shh, thinking.” Sanji frowns, tapping the wooden part of the brush on his lip as he thinks. Fifteen on each arm would bring him to thirty, giving him a final of five that he could do on Zoro’s shoulders, neck and face. 

“Are you wearing the same thing as last time? So this is bare?” Sanji asks, his hand running over Zoro’s neck and collar bones as he pictures the design. Zoro nods in response. 

Sanji gets to work, making sure that Zoro is symmetrical. He starts with the outlines first, planning on coming back for the detail later. He puts a set of three over Zoro’s deltoid, the muscle that covers Zoro’s shoulder above his bicep. These are more like arcs instead of bands. Below that there are a set of three bands large and wrapped around Zoro’s bicep. He steers clear of Zoro’s elbows though, if he doesn’t the man won’t be able to bend his arms much until it dries and that’d be a pain. Thinner bands go around the top of Zoro’s forearm, as close to Zoro’s elbow as he can get without risking smudging and still allowing some amount of bending. Then a set of three in the middle of his forearm and the final set around his wrist, similar to Sanji’s but the last one dips partially over Zoro’s hand almost like a bracelet. He copies these exactly on Zoro’s other arm, comparing them carefully for symmetry as he goes and holding Zoro’s arms out when he’s done to compare.

When he’s satisfied he moves close to Zoro, putting himself almost in Zoro’s lap to paint. After an awkward and thigh straining amount of time Sanji gives up and does sit himself on Zoro’s stretched out legs, with Zoro supporting most of his weight on his straight arms behind him. Sanji’s knees are past Zoro’s hips and Sanji’s mind only breaks from its concentration for a moment to imagine what it would be like to be in the same place on Zoro but naked. 

He’s careful not to let his wrist touch anything, he’d sooner throw himself on one of Zoro’s swords than let Zoro’s first highly intimate gesture to him get ruined. The stress of it strains him a little and Sanji knows that his wrist will be sore in the morning but he doesn’t care, it’s worth it. 

Two long marks go from part way around the back of Zoro’s neck and around to his collarbones gently curling with the bone and, perhaps slightly indulgently on Sanji part, in a small echo to Sanji’s own slightly curled appearance. Beyond that Sanji repeats his design under Zoro’s cheekbones again because they looked strong and fierce before and he has to admit that of all of the marks he left on Zoro last time he was the most proud of them. That leaves him with one left. The first time Sanji had drawn it as a straight line from Zoro’s hairline, but this time he pauses. 

“Can I do this?” Sanji asks softly in Tsukian, rubbing a clean finger across Zoro’s forehead, temple to temple in a way that echoes the delicate chain of Sanji’s own crown. He’s never seen Zoro wear a crown but Sanji feels like he should have something like it. 

“Do you want it?” Zoro says, answering Sanji’s question with a question of his own. 

“I want to know what you think, idiot.” Sanji responds sharply and Zoro laughs, bright and happy in a way that makes Sanji’s insides glow. 

“Yeah.” Zoro answers finally and Sanji smiles and dips his brush in the ink again and steadies Zoro’s face with a hand on his neck, careful though to avoid the drying ink lower down. He draws a band that runs from just above each temple in a delicate double arch, meeting in a slight point in the middle of his forehead. Once he’s done Sanji pulls back a little to look at Zoro and knows that now he has to fill in some of the designs. He tries to ignore how Zoro is watching him and thinks of how to fill in the band on Zoro’s head, after that he’ll work down to the others and back to his arms. 

He could fill this one in solid black, but that would look too severe. Instead Sanji leans in close and gives him three feather-light lines inside the painted on echo of Sanji’s own crown. He moves to Zoro’s cheekbones and hatches in the bands there with lines of three, his hands careful on Zoro’s skin. He doesn’t feel as relaxed as he did before, but now he knows just how much what he’s doing means and he feels like he should say something but he doesn’t feel like he can say anything adequate in either language. Perhaps the best that he can do is to do his best job on this and make everyone else see just how much he cares, so that Zoro can look in the mirror and see on the outside how Sanji feels about him on the inside. 

By the time that Sanji gets to the bands on Zoro’s neck and collarbones Zoro has his eyes shut and his head rested back on the edge of the bed. Zoro’s bed is so low that his head is way back, his throat stretched and vulnerable. He doesn’t flinch even in the slightest when Sanji’s fingers press lightly against his windpipe to steady himself as he paints. Perhaps that is the difference between loving someone and knowing them. Being able to trust someone this much, especially where Zoro comes from it must mean a lot. 

“So if… if you gave me this one on my wrist for beating Kaku… maybe when I earn a second you could put it here on me.” Sanji suggests quietly, running his fingers in a circle around Zoro’s throat. 

Zoro’s eyes snap open and he carefully tilts his head back up again to look at Sanji, giving him time to move his brush and not accidentally paint where he shouldn’t. 

Suddenly Zoro’s hands are tight around Sanji’s bare forearms and Zoro pulls him close, chest to chest and Zoro presses a harsh kiss right to the same point on Sanji’s neck. He breathes sharply and fees Zoro’s mouth there, lips and teeth against his skin so hard. Zoro pulls back and breathes words against Sanji’s chilling skin that Sanji can’t quite make out. 

“You’re... what? I didn’t understand that.” Sanji asks quietly, wanting to know what it was that Zoro said, it has to be important right? 

Zoro doesn’t give him time to ask again as he pushes Sanji backwards, Sanji’s back hitting the floor and Zoro suddenly above him, holding himself above him with his arms caging Sanji in. Zoro seems to realise at the same time as Sanji, that he can’t really get any closer to Sanji in this position without ruining all of the paint on his arms and Sanji knows full well that he won’t do that. Sanji grins smug and sharp and moves his arm, still able to reach the pot of thick ink. He pushes his brush into it and then takes it back. With his left hand he reaches up and puts his hand around Zoro’s throat in the same way that he had run his fingers earlier. It’s not tight, it’s not a threat at all, just a show that he can. He rubs his thumb along Zoro’s artery and reaches his brush up and paints thick cool ink in the bands over Zoro’s collarbones. Zoro makes this broken kind of noise and Sanji thinks that this is far better than anything he could ever have imagined with Zoro. It doesn’t make any sense, this isn’t Sanji’s culture but sometimes half of it feels so instinctual to him that he wonders if maybe it should have been in a way. One way or another it is his now, at least in part. 

When he’s done with Zoro’s neck he stands up and sits down again, his legs crossed and he guides Zoro into where he had him last time, with his head in Sanji’s lap and his eyes shut. When they’re done and Sanji checks the time it’s two in the morning. He stays for a bit, letting the last of the ink on Zoro dry and stroking Zoro’s hair one handed and looking at his own wrist on the other. 

The waves on his wrist aren’t quite all the same, some smaller waves lie in the smooth waves between the larger ones, giving an impression of depth. They all point the same way though, like Sanji has his hand in a whirlpool. He understands why it’s a band though, if that’s the theme that Zoro is going for then it’s a repeatable and countable pattern. Sanji could get more of these painted on in the future after he’s won more fights or battles and get more bands of waves and it’d be obvious how many that he has. 

He wonders about the number of marks that Zoro’s knights might have, they’ve been Tsukians for their whole lives after all. He has a smug thought that regardless of how many they have Kaku must have one less to paint than he would have yesterday. His mind comes back to how surprised the other knights seemed to be about the whole thing. They didn’t seem shocked that Sanji had won, impressed perhaps, but what did seem to shock them was that there had been a fight at all. But Kaku had spoken out against Sanji almost immediately and not backed down from it either. 

He wonders how it would have gone if he hadn’t interfered and just let Zoro deal with it. Would Zoro have just forced and apology out of him or would Zoro have fought him? From what Zoro said they’re not nakama like he is with Nami, so perhaps he would just naturally be less forgiving with him. Still, it seems strange and he resolves to carefully observe Zoro’s knights and work out what kind of people they are and what they all are to Zoro. He doesn’t want to go into their company any blinder than he has to be. When they leave there will be one of Sanji’s knights with him, he thinks that he’ll take Franky, the man is a competent fighter after all and Zoro got to take Robin with him. She’s one of Zoro’s knights but she’s also a translator. Usopp will come of course but Usopp isn’t a knight like Franky is. 

He realises that his mind has wandered and Zoro looks like he is either asleep or is very close to it. 

“Zoro, you should sleep.” Sanji prompts him, touching Zoro’s chest gently. The prince’s eyes open with a sleepy blink and Zoro hums in agreement. 

“Should wash that.” Zoro mumbles sleepily and stands up, taking Sanji by the hand with the painted wrist and pulls him to the bathroom that attached to his room. He gets to the sink and Zoro turns the tap and gets Sanji’s wrist under the cool water and delicately washes the thicker and drier parts of the ink off. His fingers are careful though, making sure not to smudge anything by putting too much pressure on anything or rubbing too hard. He pats the skin dry with a towel that Sanji notices stains immediately. 

Sanji holds his wrist up in the low light of the bathroom and turns it this way and that, with the thicker ink residue gone he can see just how fine the detail is that Zoro gave him. Before he can admire it for too long though Zoro catches his arm again and presses suddenly slick hands to Sanji’s skin. He gets a scent of something deep and exotic that he realises suddenly he’s smelt on Zoro before, faint but there. 

“Are you cooking breakfast?” Zoro asks him sleepily and yawns wide. 

“Yeah. Is that going to be a problem?” Sanji frowns. He’s sure that he can wash his hands without getting it wet, as long as he’s careful.

“No, just… when you wake, wash it gently, like that. No soap. Then use a little of this, less than I did then.” Zoro explains whilst searching gingerly in a bag before pulling a smaller bottle out, but to Sanji’s surprise he doesn’t hand him that one, he hands Sanji the larger bottle of what he had been using. He doesn’t question the strange behaviour, too sleepy to do so. 

“I’m going to sleep, you should too.” Sanji reminds him with a yawn and turns for the door. He pauses for a moment though, his eyes on his wrist and the pattern there, shining slightly with the coat of oil now on it.

“It’s beautiful, thank you.” He adds, turning back and kissing Zoro lightly before leaving the room.

He returns to his own, not bothering to turn the light back on. Someone must have come in whilst he was away and turned it off, Usopp most probably. He was already almost completely dressed for bed, in fact he’s under dressed, but he’s not going to put a shirt on as it might smudge his wrist. 

He sighs happily and falls into his bed with a smile and pulls the covers up over himself.


	11. Chapter 11

Zoro's head is filled with a whirl of emotions that distract him from speaking to the people he's waited months to see. Sanji had explained his fear, shown Zoro his weakness and that alone had been enough to put Zoro's head and heart both into a spin. So when Kaku, his usually happy and peaceful friend Kaku, went right for the weak spot that he knew Sanji had, well... he couldn't allow it.

He'd challenged Kaku on it, hoping to make him back down or if worst came to worst he would fight him for it. That had been the plan right up until Sanji had called Kaku on it himself. At first Zoro had thought it was Sanji lashing out because he was hurt. The more that he listened to Usopp and Sanji talk though, the more he realised that Sanji really was challenging Kaku. Sure he didn't really know what he was doing in terms of how to properly go about it, but that was a challenge alright. He'd grinned and allowed it but now as he's walking in silence to the temporary knights quarters he's not so sure.

He's never known Kaku to be like this at all. Kaku is happy and bright, warm and friendly. He's always reminded Zoro of Luffy, if a bit more mature in his agreeable nature. Whilst Luffy can switch from childlike laughter to utter destruction, Kaku was smoother, though he was serious in his fights he was still Kaku. This... this doesn't seem like Kaku. It would help to know what's going on in the man's head, why he's behaving so oddly, he wants to know why Kaku has taken up such a problem with the man that Zoro is in... whatever it is with. His husband at least. He doesn't want to get into Kaku's head the same way that he does with Sanji's though and he needs to be clear about that with everyone.

It doesn't mean that he can't ask any questions though.

“Why are you doing this Kaku?” Zoro asks, as he goes through the door into the area prepared for the knights. There are still servants rushing about here and there, getting the things in from the horses and straightening the place up. Baratians and hospitality are hard to part.

The knight pauses in the middle of the room, his jaw tense and his head tilted so that the shade from his hat covers his eyes. Even through his high necked and full sleeved armor Zoro can see that he's strung tighter than a bow.

“Because someone needs to do it.” Kaku finally says.

“To do what? Attack the crown prince of a country that we are in a new and tenuous treaty with at what is literally your first meeting with him?” Robin asks lightly, leaning against the wall and watching the pair of them intently.

The rest of his knights are in the room watching the pair with careful expression. Luffy in particular is looking at Kaku with a scrutinizing expression. Kaku is one of Zoro's knights and his friend, but as the captain of the knights he is Luffy's direct responsibility. If Luffy knows why Kaku is doing this then he's not giving any indication about it.

“He's not strong enough to be anything to you!” Kaku barks out angrily, turning to face Zoro for the first time.

“Kaku, it's not your place to decide that.” Nami says, interrupting them.

“Besides, I'm Zoro's nakama and I thought the same thing, but then I actually spoke to him and... he seems to be a good guy. He's smart and from what I've seen of him so far I actually like him. But you are Zoro's friend, you can't determine that kind of thing for him and even if you could it's too late, they're already married.” Nami points out. Kaku flinches when Nami calls him Zoro's friend, Nami's point isn't especially subtle. Nami is his nakama and Kaku isn't, she couldn't have made that point and the underlying 'back off' much clearer unless she painted it on his face.

“I need to get ready for the duel.” Kaku mutters and walks off.

“Subtle.” Ace snorts.

“Well someone had to point it out.” Nami retorts.

“This isn't like Kaku at all. He didn't even see how strong the prince is.” Johnny says with a frown.

“What makes you say that he's strong?” Yosaku asks with a frown and Zoro rolls his eyes. Johnny and Yosaku are dear old friends, he's known them longer than he has Luffy and Nami after all, but sometimes they're not all that bright.

He walks away from his knights and looks out of the window. There's an arch outside which Zoro knows leads down the courtyard where he and Sanji always spar, where Sanji is going to fight Kaku. It'll take them five minutes to get there at most, which gives Kaku ten minutes to get ready. Zoro bites his lip as unease coils in his gut. Kaku was stupid to agree to a fight with Sanji when he knows literally nothing about him, but Sanji isn't being that bright either. Even though Sanji's culture is more about manners are trade than it is war and battle he knows that Sanji doesn't leap into things blindly. He's going into a fight blind, he doesn't know how Kaku fights at all.

The thing that puts Zoro the most ill at ease is that he doesn't know who's going to win this fight. Kaku is a trained warrior, one of the fastest Zoro knows and strong too. Sanji is quick on his feet, strong and flexible, but Zoro has only seen Sanji spar. He doesn't know if Sanji has ever been in a real live combat situation with someone who might intend to kill him.

He hopes that Kaku isn't dumb enough to try to kill the Prince of Baratie, but even within a non-fatal match up there is a chance that the worst could happen, live blades are involved after all. The thought of Sanji hurt like that or worst still losing him altogether makes Zoro's blood run cold. He has to have faith in Sanji, but if it looks like Kaku might kill him then he'll intervene on the grounds that this isn't a fight to the death and also that killing the Prince of Baratie is a really fucking dumb idea.

“It'll be alright!” Luffy assures him, appearing out of almost nowhere to wrap his arm tightly around Zoro's shoulders.

“Yeah.” Zoro agrees with a nod, relaxing at having Luffy so close to him again.

“It's very good to see your face again Luffy.” Zoro says with a smile and ruffles Luffy's hair through his hat.

“We missed you!” Luffy declares loudly and Zoro hears Ace laugh in the main room.

“YOU MISSED HIM TOO!” Luffy yells back at him, making Zoro's ears ring.

“Which reminds me, why are you even here Ace? Not that we're not all pleased to see you of course.” Robin asks and Zoro turns around with interest. This is a conversation that he'd been planning on having when he saw Ace for the first time, but with everything between Sanji and Kaku he'd forgotten entirely.

Ace isn't one of Zoro's knights. He's not a knight at all. He's Luffy's brother and a friend to Zoro in his own right, putting him in this nebulous nakama corner state that's almost nakamaship in its own right. But he isn't a knight and this is a little far to come for a social visit when Zoro will be back home before too long.

“Good luck finding that out, he's been tight lipped about it the whole way here.” Nami huffs in irritation, leaning against the stone wall and giving Ace a glare for evading her.

“I'd tell you if I knew, all I know is that this is where I'm supposed to be.” Ace answers with a big shrug and slumps back on the sofa that he's sprawled on.

“Your father's orders?” Robin asks, clearly intrigued. Ace's father is Whitebeard, the most powerful general in Shimotsuki's army and Ace is one of his most trusted men and a son to him too. If Whitebeard wants him here then something must be very wrong.

“Don't give me that look Zoro, I really don't know. Maybe the old man just wanted me out of his hair, he has been saying that I need to stop working so hard. Maybe sending me running between two countries is his idea of a relaxing time. Maybe it's something between him and the King, some kind of bet or who knows. I figure that spending time with my friends and my little brother can't be a bad thing, right?” Ace replies with a wide grin on his freckled face. Zoro shrugs, he likes having Ace around plenty and he has a suspicion that Sanji and Ace will get on well. Both of their fathers move in mysterious ways and often it's far more effort than it's worth to work out what they're up to.

“We should go.” Robin says as Kaku returns to the room, his tough armor on and his swords sheathed at his right hip.

Robin leads the way and they all fall into step behind her.

“Non-fatal, you hear me?” Zoro says quietly but firmly to his friend.

“I'm not stupid Zoro.” Kaku responds, his tone darker than Zoro has heard it in a long while. What is wrong with him?

“You could have fooled me.” Zoro responds with a raised eyebrow and pulls away from him in the courtyard. He makes his way to the centre of it before the others do and sees Sanji leaning against a table top, his head tipped back and his bare throat exposed. Zoro's heart twinges for him.

Sanji is either very deliberately riling Kaku up with his outfit or he's being incredibly naive, the same white clothes and light floating shirt as before, the only difference is that he's replaced his black boots for his white formal ones, adding yet more white to his outfit.

“Is this some kind of stupid surrender?!” Kaku snarls.

“I don't believe so.” Robin says lightly and makes her way to the edge of the courtyard, leaning daintily against the wall with Nami at her side.

“But he's wearing even more white, and he's not even bothered to bring a weapon! What kind of fucking insult is this?!” Kaku snarls furiously.

“He doesn't use one.” Zoro corrects him, but Kaku is evidently too angry to listen to him properly and seems to be taking it all wrong.

“As if he doesn't need one to beat me? Are you going to let him act like this to me?” Kaku snaps in outrage.

“He doesn't use a weapon, he's hand to hand, same as Luffy and Ace.” Zoro responds patiently, though his own irritation at Kaku's out of character behavior rising.

“Yeah, but we're devil's fruit users.” Luffy points out.

Sanji saunters up to them, his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face. Maybe he won't need to fight Kaku, maybe that vein throbbing in Kaku's forehead will burst and he'll keel over in a messy stress induced spray of blood.

“I don't even know your name.” Sanji says pleasantly.

“Kaku.” the man answers through gritted teeth.

Zoro needs to intervene before someone gets stabbed in the throat.

“Back off and don't kill each other.” he says, getting to his feet and fixing both men with a firm look. Sanji easily takes a step back but Kaku takes a moment longer. He looks back to Sanji who beams like he's having the time of his life. Zoro sighs, there's no stopping this idiot is there?

He gets out of their way and calls for the match to begin.

Sanji waits there, casual as you please, watching Kaku's self control slip away from him and the grip on his two swords become so tight that the blades shake. Zoro's frown deepens. Kaku is not one to lose his head usually, he's a far calmer fighter than Nami is for example, so for him to lose it so quickly is troubling. What is wrong with Kaku?

The knight cracks and lunges for Sanji but the blonde easily dodges it, lands and then converts the power from that landing into a coiled leap for Kaku. He lands on the knight's chest and kicks the sword clean out of his hand. He doesn't get it out of Kaku's range completely, but the swordsman isn't picking it up any time soon.

Sanji lands on the ground as light as air and, not for the first time in a fight, he wonders if Sanji is even human. The other prince moves with such lightness and grace that it's difficult just to grasp how fast and hard he can hit. Everything Sanji does feels and looks as fluid as the ocean that borders his country.

Kaku looks frankly shocked at Sanji's attack and it serves him right for challenging a man to a fight when he knows absolutely nothing about him. Sanji's already clearly worked out that Kaku is left handed like Zoro, clever man.

Sanji doesn't give Kaku a minute to get his bearings together though and instead kicks him hard enough to send him flying. Zoro's toes curl in his boots and he bites his lip hard, trying to keep himself focused but his mind derails into the idea of it being Sanji biting him and- okay, no, he can't think about Sanji and biting right now. It's bad enough that Sanji's clothes are so skintight on the bottom half of him and so floating and almost see through on the top. Zoro doesn't even have to strain his imagination to imagine Sanji out of them. When the blonde bends down and grabs Kaku's sword Zoro's brain helpfully supplies him of the image of Sanji naked and turning his back on Zoro, trusting Zoro to set the pace for the two of them in bed and-

“I'll guess I'll keep this then!” Sanji chirps and twirls Kaku's sword in his hand before jamming it in place between two paving slabs so that Kaku can't get it back easily. He's not damaged it but seeing that kind of dangerous treatment to a perfectly good blade is enough to put Zoro's head back into watching the fight and not getting distracted.

Kaku flings himself at Sanji again, his sword having switched hands to his dominant left once more and he swings it at Sanji in a high speed slice that makes Zoro jerk to attention. If Sanji doesn't get out of the way that could dismember him! Thankfully Sanji does get out of the way, only just, though Zoro can't see from here if he was injured at all in the process. Sanji no longer looks happy or like he's having a lot of fun. Instead his face is dark and deadly serious.

Sanji skids across the stone and then plants his feet, heavy and strong. Kaku moves to him again, meaning to cleave him in two and Zoro jumps to his feet because Sanji isn't moving and if that attack hits him it will kill him! Sanji just ducks inside of it though and slams his foot into Kaku's chest. He pivots with what should be impossible flexibility and redirects all of Kaku's force into smashing him into the ground hard enough that the floor breaks. He hears the air force its way out of Kaku's lungs and the scrape of metal as Sanji kicks Kaku's sword out of his hand again, leaving him now entirely unarmed.

Zoro stares for a second longer than he should. Sanji is balanced perfectly between Kaku's chest and his hand. He can tell from Sanji's stance and his control that if he tried he could snap Kaku's ribs and impale his heart and lungs on them if he chose, or he could move his weight to Kaku's wrist and shatter completely. Zoro should probably intervene right about now, regardless of how powerful and attractive Sanji looks right now.

“Match. Sanji, get off of him. Kaku, you lost. Robin, could you get a doctor for me? Kaku will probably need something.” Zoro says and Sanji hops lightly off of Kaku and lands a little way away.

Kaku rolls over, clutching his hand to what Zoro knows is going to be an impressive bruise. He does want the knight checked out to make sure that nothing is bleeding internally, with how powerful Sanji's kicks are he wouldn't be surprised. Kaku is glaring at Sanji as if he cheated somehow and Zoro feels rage coil inside of him. His knights know better than to act like this, Sanji won fairly, Kaku ought to respect that without being told. When Kaku looks at Zoro he seems to remember this and gets to his feet, dropping his arm from his chest and moving to get his sword from the ground.

He sees the pained look on Kaku's face and something closer to pity than sympathy flares in Zoro's chest. Kaku is a knight and Zoro doesn't think he's lost a fight that badly and that fast since he was an apprentice, it's his own fault of course, but it can't feel good.

“I’ve got your swords, I’ll look after them.” Zoro says gently and Kaku looks at him with a pained sort of frown and nods. Kaku withdraws his hand from the direction of his sword and looks to Sanji. Zoro can see his jaw tense and he looks like he's about to punch Sanji but instead he moves into the shallowest bow acceptable for the situation, the equivalent of a small child being forced to say 'thank you' for a gift they obviously didn't like. Any sympathy Zoro had rapidly evaporates and Sanji looks to him with an expression of panic, mouthing the question as to whether he should bow too. Zoro shakes his head, he wouldn't need to in this situation. Of course he could if he felt like the fight was honorable and both sides had fought well and with dignity, but it would be optional and this clearly isn't that sort of situation. He doesn't mention it to Sanji.

Kaku pulls himself back upright after the shortest possible time and jerkily turns away, trying not to show that his stomach and chest hurt. Robin thankfully leads him away but Zoro has a hell of a lot of questions that he wants to ask the man when he sees him next.

He stares at the place that Kaku left though whilst the rest of his knights buzz with their own questions about Kaku and comments to Sanji.

This whole Kaku thing is eating at him though and he knows that it's going to bother him until he finds out what's going on.

Zoro is pulled out of his thoughts when Luffy bounces past him and springs up and down in place like a rubber ball in front of a rather wide eyed Sanji.

“Luffy, calm down already.” He urges his captain with a laugh. Luffy can turn even the most troublesome situations light and seeing as there's nothing that Zoro can do right now about the Kaku situation he lets it go and allows Luffy's good mood to overtake him.

“Yeah Luffy, just because he can cook doesn’t mean that he'll sprint off to wait on you hand and foot. But I'm sure that our great leader can use some of his various parts to sweet talk his paramour for you.” Nami grins at them and Luffy laughs so hard that Zoro thinks he might burst something.

“NAMI!” Zoro yells at her, thankful for the lost expression on Sanji's face that tells him that the blonde didn't get a word of that. There's only so long that Sanji's vocabulary in Tsukian will stay limited enough for things like that to pass him by.

“Yeah, you’ll get to eat tonight, at the big feast.” Ace says with a subtle grin that Zoro can't call him on without tipping Sanji off to what it was that Nami said. He glares at the man and Ace snickers quietly into his hand.

“I need to talk to the King and see if there’s going to be a feast tonight or if it’s tomorrow.” Usopp says in Baratian and Zoro thanks small mercies that Usopp didn't translate any of that for Sanji and is subtly moving the topic on. He needs to do something to thank Usopp for that, and soon.

“Why wouldn’t there be a feast? He was working on it earlier.” Sanji asks, blissfully oblivious.

“Well, you did just duel a knight and kick him in the chest within an hour of the King telling you not to cause a diplomatic incident. Plus it was late when they arrived anyway, it’s for him to decide though.” Usopp answers and now Zoro is glad that he's speaking Baratian and Luffy can't hear the potential for not getting as much food as before.

“He started it.” Sanji reasons. Zoro... Zoro suspects that Sanji's line of reasoning there will not go down well with his father, especially considering that they had only just argued mere hours ago.

The next thing that Sanji says seems to be some sort of accusation that Usopp would say something to Sanji's father, but it's some kind of metaphor that he hasn't heard before. Normally he would ask Sanji or Usopp to explain it but it's not really the right time for it.

“No, you’re right. I think it’d be a far better idea for me to keep information or lie to the King about you technically attacking the representative of another country.” Usopp answers, Sanji having apparently convinced him against telling the King. Was he wrong about what Sanji just said then? It was a guess. Still, lying to the King is a bad idea.

“I don’t think that sounds like a better idea. Sanji you should probably talk to the King.” Zoro adds with some concern. Sanji looks at him with a soft sigh and then rolls his eyes in despair.

“He was being a sarcastic little shit, Zoro. He thinks that fighting was dumb.” Sanji explains and Zoro frowns. That hadn't sounded like sarcasm.

“Oh. Damn, I thought I’d got the sarcasm thing, but I think I can still only really tell when it’s you.” He admits unhappily and something soft and sweet flits across Sanji's face for a second, something like endearment and Zoro is pretty sure that even Sanji didn't notice it.

“Are you meddling Zoro? Really?” Nami gawps, striding up to him. Zoro winces. Shit he had been hadn't he?

“Uh- I don't- maybe?” Zoro hedges.

“He was! He's nakama already? That's so COOL!” Luffy exclaims with a yell and throws himself at Zoro with little regard for the fact that Nami has just jammed her finger in his mouth to pull his head around to look at her.

“Don't you lie to me Roronoa Zoro! You're meddling in his affairs already? I saw that, I might not be able to understand what you said but I know meddling when I see it.” Nami insists, tugging at his face to make him look at her.

“Is he a corner then? Nakama's nakama?” Luffy wonders aloud.

“Little bro, that sure as shit 'ain't nakama.” Ace answers.

Zoro flails out of Nami's grip and looks around wildly, he really doesn't need Sanji hearing just how quick his friends and nakama have caught on to what's going on. But Sanji isn't there, it's just Usopp standing nearby trying to pull Kaku's sword out of the ground carefully. Zoro gets up and stops him, pulling the blade out without scratching it.

“I wasn't meddling I was just... he was being sarcastic and I didn't hear it. I thought he was going to lie to his father about the duel and I was telling him not to, but like I said, he was being sarcastic so it didn't count.” Zoro says slowly, turning the blade in his hand to check for damage.

“That's meddling bro.” Johnny chips in with a nod.

“I- I was- oh fine. Maybe I was trying to interfere a little, but I was just trying to help and it was something he was going to do anyway.” he mutters, rubbing his cheek and dropping his attention from Kaku's blade.

“You know full well that it doesn't matter if he was already going to do it, you were trying to change his decisions, you didn't just say it's not what you'd do, you were altering what he does. Are you always this public about it?” Nami demands, her hands on her hips. She had a point, Zoro had told her in confidence about how he feels but he can't return to Shimotsuki like this and expect people not to notice. His knights have been here a little more than an hour and they all seem to have to figured it out to one degree or another.

“Baratie doesn't have a word for nakama, we don't really have a concept of it so people here don't notice.” Usopp says quietly and the others look at him in surprise.

“They don't have nakama here?” Yoskau asks in wide eyed shock.

“Well, we do... but... I don't know. It's hard to explain. They act like it with some people but because it's not an official relationship things get blurry. I'm Sanji's nakama and I have been for years, but Sanji doesn't call me that because he's only learnt the term recently.” Usopp explains.

“That's really weird.” Johnny says with a frown. Usopp just shrugs and Zoro finds himself wondering for the first time if Usopp feels out of place in Baratie sometimes, being somehow both a native and a foreigner and if he'll feel the same in Shimotsuki too.

“Doesn't matter. Sanji isn't Zoro's nakama. I'll prove it.” Ace declares and turns to Nami with a beaming grin.

“Nami, I'll bet you all of the money I have, winner take all, that Zoro and Sanji aren't nakama.” Ace offers, his grin wide.

Every member of their group falls into stunned silence and they look between the pair with wide eyes. Betting against Nami is terminally stupid, but betting everything that you have is beyond insane unless you're completely certain that you're right.

“I'm not gonna take that bet.” Nami mutters and Zoro groans because that is utter confirmation that Nami agrees completely with Ace. There's a split second before their group explodes in shock and amused laughter.

“You're in LOVE with him!” Luffy exclaims and flings his arms around Zoro's neck.

“So, Usopp, how long have they been like this?” Nami asks silkily, turning her gaze on Usopp.

“Don't you dare answer that.” Zoro snaps, pointing Kaku’s sword at Usopp who pales considerably.

“All of you drop it, okay? Like Usopp said, they don't have words for this shit here so it's... weird. I don't need anyone meddling in this and that goes double for you Nami!” Zoro calls over his shoulder as he stomps over to Kaku's other sword and remove it from the hedge that Sanji had kicked it in.

He pauses for a moment as his brain replays the way the graceful arc of Sanji's body as he snapped that kick out and sent Kaku's weapon flying. Kaku who is so fast and such a good swordsman and Sanji took him down in minutes and looked like grace personified in doing so.

“Definitely not nakama.” Ace chuckles darkly.

“Shut up Ace, you're lucky that I like you!” Zoro shouts back at him, making he man laugh harder.

“Look, Sanji and I are still... it's complicated. Just... treat him with respect and don't treat this like some kind of entertainment. This is important okay? So no meddling!” He adds that last bit with some force as he looks at Nami and Luffy.

“No meddling, if you wanted my help you'd have asked me.” Luffy says lightly.

“The point of meddling is that I do it whether you want me to or not. But I think I'll leave you be. For now.” Nami grins at him.

“I hate you, witch.” Zoro grumbles and stomps off inside, making his way up the stairs to where the knights are staying with Luffy only having to tell him he's going the wrong way once.

When he returns he sticks his head around Kaku's door and sees the man sitting on his bed, scowling at the wall, his chest bare with his chest armor discarded at the side.

“I got your swords. They're fine.” Zoro says, banging on the door with them in an entirely pointless knock.

“Thank you.” Kaku says softly.

Zoro sighs and walks into the room, putting the two swords carefully on the bed.

“Has the doctor seen you?” He asks, looking at the foot shaped bruise that's already forming in the middle of his chest, another on his ribs and a smaller half footprint on his pectoral, his wrist is starting to swell a little too.

“I'm fine.” Kaku says, glaring at the floor.

“Okay.” Zoro nods and leaves the man be. Kaku clearly isn't jumping over himself to talk about it and it's absolutely not Zoro's place to pry, they're nowhere near close enough for that.

****  
  
  


It turns out that there isn't a feast that night, something that bitterly disappoints the two brothers until it becomes apparent that theres going to be pretty much the same amount of food without having to dress up or interact with strangers. He even manages to convince Usopp to stay when he comes by to tell Zoro that Sanji is having dinner with his father. The man is half Tsukian and Zoro considers Usopp a friend and it's better than him eating alone in their wing of the palace.

“Mn, Zoro, I got you some'fin.” Ace says around a leg of lamb that he has stuffed in his mouth. He pins Luffy to the ground with one foot as he steps away slightly to drag his bag across the ground to their low table. He rummages inside and pulls out a small bottle and throws it at Zoro.

“What's this?” He asks curiously and uncorks it. The scent of oil and red fire flowers hits him, with tones of cool water and fresh grass underneath it.

“I figured that since we were all gonna be painting ourselves up tonight it'd come in handy. I got that oil at a market on one of the small islands off of the coast of Alabaster. I thought it was my kind of thing with the fire flower but once it sets it's more your sort of smell.

“Your second hand gifts are so thoughtful Ace.” Yoskaku teases and Ace throws his fork at the man.

“Thanks, I'll try it.” Zoro says absently. His mind wanders to Sanji again. If they're having the feast and a ball tomorrow then he will have to get his marks painted on tonight. Last time was amazing, laid out on the floor with his head in Sanji's lap whilst Sanji ran an ink smoothed brush over his skin.

An arm that shouldn't be able to reach him pinches him in the side, despite Luffy on his right having both hands on his food and Johnny on his left propping his chin up with one hand and gesturing at Kaku in a lively conversation with the other. Zoro's eyes meet Robin's and she arches an eyebrow at him. Zoro pockets the oil and shoves thoughts of Sanji out of his mind. The Baratians are definitely rubbing off on him, he never used to be this obvious about things like this.

The evening wears on and Zoro's mind keeps snapping back to Sanji and the fact that he beat Kaku in a duel. Sanji is owed a mark. It's not just going to be Zoro who'll be painted tonight, it'll be Sanji. Fuck, he could get to paint Sanji. The thought of having that smooth pale skin under his fingertips and trailing black ink in the wake of his brush is enough to send Zoro's heart into overdrive. Sanji doesn't know about picking designs and maybe he could think of something if Zoro explained it to him but he knows already what he wants Sanji to have. Sanji is water, smooth and fluid like his movements in that fight, nothing wasted at all. His mind flashes back to the waters that surrounded Nami's islands, of those narrow and delicate stretches of sparkling blue water that are the same colour as Sanji's eyes. Those patches of water that shimmered beautifully in the light, the same ones that fools tried to cross only to be sucked under instantly, dragged under into unseen depths never to be found again. Beautiful, capable of being both serene and raging but most of all utterly deadly at will. Zoro should probably see a doctor too because he's pretty sure that his heart is beating in a very unhealthy way.

“I should go.” Zoro finally says after thoughts about Sanji drag him from the conversation one too many times.

“You don't want to finish that?” Luffy asks, his hand already edging for Zoro's plate.

“Go for it.” Zoro laughs and leaves with a wave of his hand.

When he gets back to their wing of the palace he's alone, the only light in the otherwise sunset shaded room is coming from underneath Sanji's door. He knocks on the door, hesitantly and with visions of water and ink in his mind.

“Come in.” Comes the muted reply in Baratian. It actually takes Zoro a moment to process it, he's been hearing his own language everywhere around him all day that suddenly Sanji's own words sound foreign again. How much had he got used to the other man's speech and their constant language switching in the relatively short time that he's been here?

He comes into the room slowly, leaning around the door. Sanji is... half naked. His shirt is missing and his still damp skin shines gently in the dim light of the room. His hand is over his arm though, the towel pressed against it and Zoro suddenly isn't so sure that Kaku missed him after all. Could he have missed that? He can't remember if he saw Sanji's arm after that, but surely he would have, wouldn't he?

“Are you hurt?!” He exclaims, crossing the space quickly to Sanji.

The blonde smiles and huffs a quiet laugh and reminds him of his tone. Stupid fucking language, he can't sound concerned without suddenly yelling something inflammatory. He repeats his question, this time more controlled and with as little emotion as he can manage after holding back all that he can.

“No, he just tore my shirt, look.” Sanji answers, dropping the towel and moving to show him his damaged shirt. Zoro does not have any fucks to give about Sanji's goddamn clothes. It's his arm that he's concerned about. He grabs the blonde, twisting his arm slightly to look, but the perfect ivory skin is entirely unmarked. Kaku didn't catch Sanji at all.

“I wouldn't lose.” Sanji says and Zoro realises that he must have said some of that aloud. Zoro's stomach flutters at Sanji's assertion of his own strength. How the hell did Zoro get to marry this man? How does a thing like that happen by chance?

“I mean… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have argued with one of your knights. It’s the first time that I met them and I go and cause a big incident and I’m sure there’s lots of cultural stuff that-” Sanji starts, suddenly lapsing into apologies that Zoro is sure that he doesn't really mean, effectively killing the fluttering that he had been feeling. Sanji's stupid culture indeed, this is lying, plain and simple. He puts his hand over the other man's mouth, stopping his idiocy temporarily.

“Are you really sorry? Do you regret challenging him to a duel?” Zoro asks him in Tsukian, knowing that Sanji's language will mangle his meaning. The blonde twinges and Zoro sees regret on his face plain and simple, though Zoro finds himself unsure as to whether he's regretting what he's supposed to be regretting or if he really does feel wrong for challenging Kaku. Zoro will feel... not disgusted with Sanji if he regrets that fight, but disappointed perhaps.

“Don’t lie, do you wish that you had not done it?” Zoro he asks again and takes his hand slowly from Sanji’s mouth. He can still feel the ghost imprint of Sanji's lips on his skin and his husband looks at him with wide blue eyes and Zoro can see Sanji's head and his heart fighting in them as clear as he could see forces on a battlefield.

“No.” Sanji answers in a hushed voice and somewhere inside him Zoro sees a flicker of the Tsukian that he could be. Sanji feels afraid of being is Zoro's country, that people will mock him or that his grasp of the language will be too poor for people to understand him. Sanji couldn't be more wrong though.

If he stops letting the things that he should do hold him back from what he feels is right then he will be great. Right now he's babbling justifications for doing what Zoro knows that Sanji felt justified in doing all along. Zoro wouldn't have encouraged Sanji to fight Kaku, no doubt the man will hold a grudge on that for a while, it would have been easier if he had let Zoro deal with it himself. Zoro doesn't want to change him, he knows that Sanji will make different calls to him, they have different values and different experiences. All Zoro wants to do is to see Sanji set free from things that are weaker than him, things that he allows to bind him that have no right to hold back a man that strong. Sanji is contradictory, gentle and restrained but fierce and proud.

“You are very strange.” Zoro remarks and kisses Sanji. The blonde sighs and melts against him and Zoro wants every part of the strange man that he's with.

Still, Sanji is strange but also naive. He needs things spelled out for him and at least for a while that's got to be Zoro's job to do.

“A man who had no right to speak to you like that insulted you, repeatedly, it was your right to challenge him. Stop saying ‘should’.” Zoro explains patiently and Sanji nods. After a second he feels the man's body relax, evidently it was playing on his mind more than the blond perhaps realised. Zoro kisses him again, light and gentle and Sanji responds in kind.

“I… I owe you an apology.” he admits unhappily to the prince. Sanji is so worried about what he's done wrong that he's not even considered that Zoro has wronged him. Or rather that he is responsible for Kaku. He breathes deep and starts to explain.

“One of my men insulted you, badly. With Nami it was different, she was frustrated for her nakama but even so-” Zoro begins. Nami shouldn't have insulted Sanji either and frankly this day could have gone a whole lot better for him. Sanji cuts him up before he's got a chance to finish explaining.

“Yeah, and I challenged one of your nakama to a duel and beat him. That was out of line for me, wasn’t it?” Sanji argues.

That... takes a moment to sink into Zoro's head. Did Sanji just get his words wrong? No, he definitely said nakama and though the term is new to him he knows that Sanji knows what it means.

“Kaku and I aren’t nakama.” Zoro he explains slowly as the idea of Kaku and nakama collide in Zoro's mind. Kaku is a friend and Zoro respects him but there is no way that he'll ever be in that kind of relationship with the man, they just don't gel well enough for it. He has no will to kick Kaku's ass into line as anything more than someone with authority over him and the idea of Kaku meddling in his affairs is ridiculous enough to make him laugh.

Sanji looks utterly confused.

“No, we’re friends. He’s a good fighter, fast too. Though… not as fast as you are.” Zoro explains, forcing himself not to laugh and feeling a little mean for having done it. As far as Zoro knows Kaku doesn't actually have any nakama of his own and he's not a bad guy, he's just not for Zoro. Still, he knows how fast and how strong Kaku is, he wouldn't have him around if he wasn't. Sanji had never fought him before and he figured him out right away.

“So I didn’t do anything wrong?” Sanji asks uncertainly.

“Nothing. Watching you fight was…” Zoro starts to explain but his throat goes dry. He's pretty sure that the image of Sanji fighting today will keep him company when he's alone for some time. He swallows thickly. How can Sanji be so unaware of his own strength and how Zoro feels about him? His throat tightens again, it's been doing that a lot lately, maybe it's his heart trying to climb out. He reaches out and takes Sanji's hand in his and squeezes it.

“Come with me. The celebration isn’t until tomorrow, so tonight.” Zoro nods, his mind flicking to the mark he so desperately wants to leave on Sanji, something that can explain how he feels better than he can. He's not good with words at the best of times and with a language barrier on something this important and something so rarely talked about... well... he doesn't want to screw this up. He pulls Sanji with him and the blond comes easily enough, perhaps he's just as eager for his as Zoro is.

He grabs the bottle of ink and his brush and turns around to face Sanji.

“The ink needs time to dry before you sleep.” Sanji says with a slow nod, seeming to understand.

“It changes to a darker black over the night too. Come here.” He says in Baratian and takes the uncertain looking blond with him. He hopes that it's just that he's screwing up Sanji's language rather than Sanji having second thoughts about this.

Sanji reaches for the bottle but Zoro pulls it away from him with a grin.

“You’re going first.” Zoro says firmly, and spins the brush around in his fingers. He's been thinking of what to paint on Sanji all night, no matter how much he's tried to focus on anything else, now he's finally going to get to do it!

“I don’t understand.” Sanji responds, a small crease forming in the middle of his forehead. Maybe one day Zoro could paint around both of Sanji's eyes and that way the man would have to show both sides of his face at once. He knows full well that if he just did one then Sanji would simply switch his fringe over. He's clearly committed to... whatever look it is that he's got going.

“You need one too now.” He explains, in case he's being unclear.

“For Kaku?” Sanji asks. Zoro barely manages to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. What the fuck else would it be for?

“I thought waves. Calm, powerful but… brutal.” Zoro says instead of calling his husband a moron. He wants to babble about all of the designs that he has in his head and feel Sanji out to which one he'd like. He's settled on a favorite but perhaps Sanji won't...

Sanji looks uncertain and uncomfortable and Zoro feels like he's swallowed a rock. He'd just, shit, he'd just assumed that after their talk where he'd admitted that painting one another is something you do with someone that you know that Sanji would still be on board with this. Has he assumed too much?

Shit, he'd got so carried away with what he wanted and what the others had read into their relationship that he'd just assumed that Sanji would want this too. He lets go of Sanji's hand and the blonde takes it back. Hell, he's really screwed this up, hasn't he?

“If you want. You don't have to do it if you don't want to.” he amends, sticking to Baratian in the hope that Sanji will get his sincerity. He wants so badly to do this but he needs Sanji to want it too.

“Stick to your own language if you’re gonna be tense.” Sanji snaps back at him, that same fire showing up in his expression and now Zoro has no clue what's going on here. Is Sanji berating him for assuming and screwing up his language or what?

“You want to do this to me? Even after everything we said?” the other man asks him warily and Zoro is starting to distinctly get the feeling that Sanji thinks that he's gone too far.

“I want to.” Zoro replies, trying to cram in as much of his desire to be that close to Sanji into his words as he can. It was bliss when Sanji did this to him, but the idea of actually exchanging these marks to each other is what he wants more than anything right now.

“Waves sounds great.” Sanji says, snapping Zoro from his doubts. Sanji's warm hand is suddenly in his and Zoro looks down at it in shock. Sanji has... he's changed his mind. The words click into place and he realises in one brilliant moment that not only has Sanji agreed to letting him paint his own design. He's trusting him completely.

He looks down at Sanji's hand in his own and tries to see his design on there but it's Sanji's hand itself that distracts him. Sanji is a prince but he's a cook too and very proud of it. Sanji is right handed like most people in Baratie seem to be and this is Sanji's right hand in his, wrist up. Sanji's not just trusting him with a long lasting but temporary design, he's trusting him with his most precious things when Zoro's swords sit well within reach. He's never had any intention of harming Sanji but he could and Sanji must surely know that, but he's trusting him so intimately anyway.

He nods and opens the bottle of ink and tries to focus on his design rather than letting his mind fly away with him on ideas of just what this means to the pair of them and what it makes them. He wants the waves facing upwards towards Sanji's body, so that when his arm is down it will look like the waves are lapping up his arm rather than running off of him.

He breathes out, steading the brush in his hand like he would his sword. He makes the first line smooth and straight, the base for the band of waves sitting on the bones to Sanji's wrist. He manages the lines that make up the band seamlessly before breathing in again. It is perfectly straight.

Sanji physically relaxes in Zoro's grip, any tension from his arm and wrist gone, his hand loose and pliable under Zoro's thumb and fingers. He refreshes the ink on his brush and draws the first wave of the design that haunted him the most this evening. He focuses on his steady hand and the traits of Sanji he wants to show off to the world. The fluid fighting that beat one of Zoro's personal knights.

He draws the curve of the wave and the inside arc of it. In a flash of possessiveness he shades it in sets of three. Maybe it's not wise to be advertising it but he can't restrain himself.

When he completes the last wave he turns the brush around in his hand, the fine ink soaked bristles pointing away from Sanji's skin. He pulls Sanji's hand closer to his face and turns it this way and that, making sure that it's all perfect, that no lines are broken or missing and that it all seems right. Before he finishes looking at it though Sanji blinks a few times and seems to come out of the peaceful daze that he'd fallen into when Zoro was painting.

The man pulls his hand back and looks at his own wrist, turning it in each direction to see the whole pattern just as Zoro had. He watches as the small smile spreads over Sanji's face as he looks at it, only to get brighter when the man finally looks directly at him. Sanji leans in to him, warm and pale hands sliding into Zoro's hair and Sanji kisses him. It shouldn't mean this much, it's just a kiss, but it does. And as he does so Zoro realises that Ace is right, this is love at the very least. So maybe it's just Sanji's fucked up culture that doesn't even have a word for nakama and blurs the lines between love and knowing someone, maybe it's just that and he's falling in love with Sanji the way that the Baratians do but Zoro realises that he so badly wants to know Sanji. He wants Sanji to be a piece of him that he can never pull out of his heart and wouldn't ever want to anyway, he wants this is and it is terrifying and he knows it but even so he wants it with everything that he has.

Sanji pulls the brush from his hands, not even noticing Zoro's turmoil. Sanji looks him over, thoughtful and considering and Zoro only represses a shudder of excitement at it.

“Thirty five…” Sanji says thoughtfully, looking at him and Zoro's pulse jumps. Sanji remembered how many victories he had as marks.

“You remembered.” he says and the corner of Sanji's mouth quirks into an amused smile for a second.

“Shh, thinking.” Sanji reprimands him with a look of concentration and Zoro wisely shuts his mouth.

“Are you wearing the same thing as last time? So this is bare?” Sanji asks, touching the side of Zoro's neck and shoulders. Zoro nods. He has other formal clothes but he will absolutely wear the same thing again if that's where Sanji wants to paint him.

“Okay.” Sanji breathes and dabs the paintbrush in the ink. He starts by leaving blank bands first, which is odd but perhaps he means to fill them in afterwards. He works from the top of his shoulders down, leaving bands in sets of three on his shoulders, biceps, forearms and wrists. He repeats himself on the other arm and Zoro watches him. Sanji's hand is steadier than Zoro had been able to do on his own left arm. His hands might be skilled from sword fighting with both hands but delicate ink work was quite a different skill set. He can see the strain on Sanji's hand though, he's being very careful not to let his wrist touch anything and Zoro thinks that it might have been better for Sanji if he had waited until after Sanji had done him before returning the favor. He probably should regret that but he doesn't, every time he sees the waves on Sanji's wrist with his three lines shading under each wave he feels a flare of pride at the man and knows that he did the right thing.

With his arms done Sanji kneels up to paint along Zoro's shoulders and so he leans back, keeping his arms behind him and out of Sanji's way.

Sanji kneels over Zoro's legs and he would be lying to the highest degree if he said that he wasn't eying the way that Sanji's silken sleepwear hangs low on his hips, showing off sharp hipbones and a defined V of muscle plunging low and reminding Zoro of the devastating kick that he gave to Kaku, the one that has his knight turning black and blue.

With an irritated huff Sanji settles into place astride Zoro's legs and scoots a little closer to him as he does it. He stops thinking about Sanji's fighting ability and starts thinking about the possibility of having sex with Sanji. The thing is though that Baratians are weird about sex, the only people that they ever have sex with are people that they're married to and never with anyone else unless they were being unfaithful. Sure, he's married to Sanji so they could, there wouldn't be any problem there, only Sanji has never been married before and so he's never had sex with anyone before. Zoro doesn't want to do that yet, what they have is still so new that he feels like anything could break it. Before today they'd only ever flirted and kissed. He'd even had to check with Robin that kissing someone was definitely something that Baratians only did with people in a romantic sense, it had felt romantic rather than platonic but Sanji's culture was so goddamn weird it was hard to be sure. The two of them don't even have a name for what they feel they are, so adding sex to that mix and what would be Sanji's first time as well... that's too dangerous and he doesn't want to do it.

Okay, that's a lie. He does want to have Sanji like that. The idea of having the blond in his bed, calling his name and being overwhelmed by- No. If he starts thinking like this Sanji is absolutely going to notice and that would be just as risky. Instead he focuses on the cool touch of the brush on his skin and absolutely doesn't think about the gentle shift of Sanji in his lap as the blonde moves ever so slightly as he paints. Well, only a little.

Sanji thankfully skirts by Zoro's throat itself, that would have been an awkward conversation to have. Instead he paints from a little way past both sides of Zoro's neck and down onto his collarbones. If he's not mistaken it feels like there's a slight swirl there too, is Sanji doing the same thing that he had been? Sneaking his own distinctive symbols and shapes into Zoro's?

With Sanji so close and focused on Zoro's face he can really watch him up close and try to get a read on him. He sees Sanji's gaze flicking between what he's doing to Zoro's eyes and then jerking it back again, as if he doesn't mean to look. There's a slight frown of concentration on his face and Sanji keeps poking the tip of his tongue out between his lips ever so slightly as he focuses, he probably doesn't even realise that he's doing it at all. The marks that Zoro had admired most of all when he saw them were the ones under his cheekbones, maybe it was a little vain but he'd thought that they made him look somewhat fearsome, so when Sanji does it again he sighs happily.

Sanji's brush hesitates and his frown deepens, pulling the brush away and resting his other hand on Zoro's pectoral, chewing absently on the wooden end of the brush. Sanji glances at his fingers before brushing one fingertip across Zoro's forehead horizontally. His warm finger runs from one side to the other, varying off of a straight line ever so slightly. Zoro realises what it is that Sanji is trying to hint at with his drawing. Zoro and his father don't have crowns, who they are is obvious enough to everyone and leadership doesn't come from displays of wealth, much less from hoarding metal for fancy jewelry. Baratians aren't as obsessed with gold and silver as some countries are, but they do have crowns. He hadn't realised it at the time, only when Robin remarked on how pretty it was afterwards, but the silver chained decoration that Sanji had around his head and in his hair at the ball was his crown. It was a series of thin chains, polished highly and woven into his hair as well as clasped with a catch. It ran across his forehead and dipped down slightly with the weight of the sapphire that hung right in the middle of his forehead. That slightly dipped band is just the shape that Sanji is tracing on him.

“Can I do this?” Sanji asks him, this time in Zoro's language rather than his own. Zoro wonders why Sanji is asking, he hadn't asked about any other part of his designs, but this evidently is different. It's important to Sanji in a way that no doubt is tied up with his notions of royalty and even his claim on Zoro himself.

“Do you want it?” he queries, curious to see what Sanji will say.

“I want to know what you think, idiot.” Sanji retorts, as unhelpful and pushing on Zoro's patience as he always is. He laughs because Sanji couldn't be any more like himself than he is right now. Being sentimental but also being a dick about it, that's Sanji through and through.

“Yeah.” He answers with a smile, knowing that he won't get more of an explanation from Sanji now.

Sanji makes a hum of approval, refreshes his brush and leans in, drawing the lines and inadvertently making it so that the pattern on his wrist is all that he can see.

Sanji starts to fill in the patterns that he's painted now, working from his inked crown downwards. The shading is delicate and the light repeated brush strokes are lulling Zoro into a soft kind of semi consciousness. He's acutely aware of everything that Sanji is doing, but the rest of the world fades away from him and his thoughts until there's nothing but Sanji and his brush. When Sanji is done with his face Zoro drops his head back onto the edge of his bed, luckily the bands on his shoulders don't spread so far that Zoro can't move his shoulders to keep them untouched. If that means that he has to lightly hold on to Sanji's hips to keep his shoulders off of the bed then that's fine by him, not that Sanji seems to notice.

“So if… if you gave me this one on my wrist for beating Kaku… maybe when I earn a second you could put it here on me.” Sanji says, and Zoro is about to open his eyes and ask Sanji where he means when he says 'here' when Sanji takes his hand off of his chest and instead runs them right over Zoro's throat.

Sanji wants... Sanji wants him to paint his throat. Images of pairs of people who know each other and have for years flash behind Zoro's eyes, all of them with permanent tattoos around the most vulnerable part of their throats, over each artery and over their throats. Painstaking tattoos done with needles and ink with utter trust that the person that you know would sooner die than hurt you. Sanji doesn't know what that means, he can't, and he's not proposing that Zoro tattoo him, he's just suggesting it in ink and it's different but... but it's so real and all Zoro can see is Sanji with Zoro's mark around his throat forever.

He surges forward holding Sanji close and presses his mouth against Sanji's throat, it was supposed to be a kiss but that somehow doesn't feel enough. He wishes that he could breathe all of the fucked up feelings that he has no reason to have for Sanji so soon, things that don't even have a real name right now, and turn all of that into an imprint of himself on Sanji's skin forever.

“I'll protect your life with mine until I die.” He breathes against Sanji's throat. It was part of his wedding vows. They hadn't put anything in the vows about love, at least not in Zoro's side, because it wasn't certain that would ever happen. One way or another Zoro would always have made sure that Sanji was safe, a promise is a promise after all, but now he feels like he doesn't know what he'd do if Sanji died. He'll fight the fucking world for Sanji and now that he's seen Sanji in a real fight, because a spar can only show so much, now he knows that Sanji would be right at his back fighting with him. What more could he ask for?

“You’re... what? I didn’t understand that.” Sanji asks quietly, having either not heard or not understood what Zoro had said. That's fine, he can show Sanji what he means. He shoves Sanji backwards and topples the blond to the floor. He knows that he shouldn't have sex with Sanji, but that does leave an awful lot else that he can do. He can make Sanji feel amazing and tell him just how much he wants this as he does it. As his hands bracket Sanji's shoulders he sees the marks on his arms and realises that he can't get any closer to the other man like this, not without ruining what Sanji has done for him. He freezes and tries to work out in his head if there is any way that he can coordinate this to get what he wants but he comes up blank and the longer he has time to think on it the more he realises that this is still not a good idea, no matter how much Sanji tempts him with things that Zoro wants but Sanji doesn't yet understand.

If the smug grin on Sanji's face is anything to go by, he's worked out that Zoro can't get any closer too. The blond stretches his arm arm out, cool and casual, and dips his brush into the ink again. Zoro figures that Sanji is going to start inking him again and force him to stay still or else ruin the pattern, meaning that Zoro will have to hold himself there on his arms for who knows how long. Zoro likes a good work out as much as any Tsukian but being stuck in half a push up for what will probably be over an hour doesn't sound like a good time to him.

Instead Sanji's left hand comes up before his right and Zoro figures that it's just to steady his brush again, right up until the moment that Sanji wraps his left hand around Zoro's throat and he swears that his breathing goes backwards.

Sanji's hand isn't tight, he's not trying to hurt him or even threaten him, it's more of a show that he can do it. Zoro squeezes his eyes shut. He is so very fucked because whether Sanji knows it or not this is a possessive claim, this kind of thing says 'I have you and you are mine'. You could do it to someone that you were in love with, maybe, but this is more than that, he knows it is. How the hell does Sanji not know what he's doing when he's doing it so perfectly?

Sanji puts pressure just right over Zoro's artery, a smooth stroke up and down that tilts Zoro's head off to the side as Sanji's brush comes up and paints thick dark ink into the outlines on Zoro's shoulders and down to his collarbones. His mind runs all over the ideas of Sanji, throat and ink. He imagines having that tattoo right where Sanji's hand is holding his throat, completely dangerous but with him in no danger at all. He wants, no, needs Sanji to wreck him and rip him apart into little pieces and put him back together over and over again. He shouldn't be thinking this but in this moment it's all he wants. Sure he wants Sanji to be his, but right now he wants to be Sanji's. The man below him turns his head again to paint the other side and Zoro hears the wretched sound that he makes, a wordless confession of what he feels.

Sanji puts the brush down into the ink with a clink of wood on glass and Zoro opens his eyes again, aware that he's breathing hard. Sanji is looking up at him searchingly. He doesn't know what Sanji sees or even what he's looking for, but the man slides out from under him and then crouches level with him. Sanji's index finger comes up against the underside of his chin and Sanji tilts his head up to look at him. He stands, taking Zoro with him and then immediately back down to the floor, moving him without question so that he's on his back with his head in Sanji's lap. Sanji starts painting again, first his wrists and then moving upwards. Zoro floats between a mental blankness of noticing only sensations and flirting with the edges of sleep. He notices when Sanji finishes with his work but doesn't care enough to do anything about it. Sanji starts running his fingers through Zoro's hair and so he stays put, just being with Sanji.

“Zoro, you should sleep.” Sanji prompts him, and a gentle touch on his chest brings him back to something closer to alertness. Sanji's painted wrist moves past his eyes as Sanji takes his hand back off of Zoro's chest.

He tells Sanji that they need to wash the ink off but he suspects that he didn't say it very well, but who cares? He's barely awake anyway.

He pulls Sanji along to his bathroom and turns the tap on, the cool water making him wake up a little more. The water needs to be cool, but not cold, to wash the ink off without opening up Sanji's pores so much that the ink will rush right out again.

Sanji lets him take his hand with zero hesitation and Zoro puts Sanji's wrist under the water, letting the hardened medium that the ink was in wash off in dissolving flakes. When the larger parts are gone he carefully runs his thumbs over the waves that he's painted, making sure to go in the direction of the ink so that even the slightest smudge that he might make will he hard to see. When he's sure that he's got everything off and isn't just cleaning the ink out of Sanji's skin he dries him off carefully with a towel.

Zoro searches for his own bottle of oil. It's large and a mix that he's used for years and years, it's part of the reason that Ace brought him a new one, second hand or not. Nami, Ace and several others had been teasing him about being stuck in his own routines so he often found himself gifted with new oils in a not so subtle attempt to give him some variety.

He runs the oil over his hands, warming it and making sure that nothing has got in it or that it's spoilt in any way. It hasn't of course but he always checks, the one time he doesn't will be the one time that something goes wrong. When he turns to Sanji to put the oil over his ink to help it set overnight he finds Sanji standing there completely absorbed and fascinated in examining the waves on his skin.

He catches Sanji and carefully pats the oil into his skin. It smells familiar and like the countless occasions before now when he's set his own ink, but now Sanji smells like him. It's... nice, comforting actually. He realises that he's going to need to give Sanji oil to refresh it himself in the morning, unless he's up late enough for Zoro to do it for him. Unlikely but he has to ask.

“Are you cooking breakfast?” Zoro asks, failing to suppress a yawn. If Sanji is then he's going to have to do the oil himself because Zoro is certain that there's no way he's getting out of bed that early.

“Yeah. Is that going to be a problem?” Sanji responds, looking uneasy and clearly torn between wanting to take care of the artwork on his skin but also fulfill his obligation to cook.

“No, just… when you wake, wash it gently, like that. No soap. Then use a little of this, less than I did then.” He explains, handing the bottle of his own oil to Sanji, he may as well stick with the same stuff, he can use Ace's gift for himself and maybe then some of them will get off his back about changing his routine. Now he needs to carefully shower and get the dried up ink medium off of him.

“I’m going to sleep, you should too.” Sanji says just as sleepily and wanders towards the door. He pauses at the threshold though before turning back.

“It’s beautiful, thank you.” Sanji says with quiet earnestness and kisses Zoro. It's short and sweet, but even so it takes the other man a moment to step back away from him. Everything still feels like it did when Sanji was painting him, like time held no real meaning and they could take their time with everything.

Sanji leaves and Zoro gets into the shower, taking good care not to rub the ink too hard. When he's finally cleaned up and dried off he reaches for his oil but remembers blearily that he gave it to Sanji and that he was going to use the one that Ace gave him as a gift. He shakes his head in a daze and starts to cover his ink with the coating of oil that will set it and make it last so that he can see Sanji’s work for as long as possible.

 **  
** He extinguishes the light in the bathroom and then his room before crawling into bed and wondering as he falls asleep what it would be like if Sanji was there with him.


	12. Chapter 12

 

When Zoro gets up Sanji is already gone, no doubt in the kitchen cooking and shouting at people, two of the things that Sanji does best. He knows that he should go and see his knights, but he doesn’t want Sanji wondering where he’s gone, or bringing him food to the wrong place, so he leaves a note on the table telling Sanji where he’ll be and heads out.

 

After a journey that was far longer that Zoro remembered it being before, he arrives at his knights’ quarters and sees that several of them are already up. Robin and Nami are sitting on one of the long low sofas drinking coffee and talking quietly.

 

“Morning.” He calls out to them, making his way over.

 

“Holy crap Zoro!” Nami blurts out, staring at him wide eyed.

 

“It’s not that early Nami, I’m not completely useless before ten am, no matter what you say.” He grumbles and pours himself coffee.

 

“You are, but I don’t think that’s what she meant.” Robin laughs quietly.

 

“Hey!” Zoro protests.

 

It’s only when he feels Nami’s hand on him pulling his arm that he realises that she’s looking at Sanji’s handiwork.

 

“You didn’t do this yourself.” She says after a few moments. She’s staring at him with big wide eyes, at first making shocked eye contact but then she gets distracted and starts looking at the marks on his face.

 

“I could have.” Zoro replies petulantly, even though he has no intentions of deceiving her he’s always found contradicting her a hard habit to break.

 

“No you couldn’t have. You’ve never designed them like this and the linework is too smooth to be yours, besides you’ve never had that much control on your left arm, your right hand isn’t as dexterous as your left. The shaded ones have waves in them, like the waves in this ocean bordered country, and swirls in it that look more than a little like your husband’s face. I’m not stupid Zoro.” Nami replies flatly and smacks him in the back of the head for good measure.

 

“Just because you’re right doesn’t mean you’re not stupid.” Zoro mutters and sits down.

 

“Everyone is going to realise it too, you know that, right?” Nami says seriously, sitting opposite him, her coffee momentarily forgotten on the table by her knees.

 

Zoro glances away, he does realise that and perhaps in hindsight it wasn’t the smartest thing to do. Maybe people will come to the conclusion that they’re in love, after all Ace had already told everyone as much, but it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for people to start wondering if it was something more.

 

“I don’t regret it.” Zoro says after a moment of looking at his arm and Sanji’s hours of work. Everything about last night had been amazing and he won’t wish that he’d been more sensible.

 

“You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” Nami says thoughtfully, her fingers tapping idly on the mikan inked onto her forearm. The little fruits dot their way up her arms and over her bust and exposed cleavage. If Nami really feels like annoying strict Tsukians she’ll wear the skimpiest clothes possible, leaving a tonne of unarmoured skin as a joint ‘fuck you’ and a ‘go on, try me’. Right now her motives are simpler though, she doesn’t want to get fabric on her own ink when it’s this fresh.

 

“Have you ever known our prince not to be serious about something important?” Robin says lightly and takes a sip of her coffee. Zoro squints suspiciously at her and wonders how long she’s been meddling in this and gently ushering him in Sanji’s direction. It’s not as if she’s falsified his feelings, she couldn’t make him feel anything he wouldn’t feel on his own, but she did make it so that he and Sanji had to spend plenty of time together and it was her who had urged him to first seek Sanji out and ask him to share his fears. Robin had probably been trying to form some kind of bond of respect between them at first, but no doubt she realised that there was potential for more and set more of it up. He’s not ungrateful at all but Nami and Robin do have a way of pulling his strings without him noticing sometimes and though he doesn’t resent it it can get a little irksome to find that they’ve been doing so.

 

Johnny and Yosaku meander into the room with Yosaku still tightening the buckle on the edge of his leather armor with a frown.

 

“I think this fuckin thing is broken.” Yosaku mutters, halting in his steps.

 

“No it’s not man, you’re just doing it wrong.” Johnny replies in exasperation and goes to his side. The man bends down and fixes whatever it is.

 

“They buckle way better when they’re not tangled up.” Johnny laughs and throws himself down on the seat next to Zoro.

 

“Morning.” Zoro says with a small wave, somewhat glad of the distraction from Nami and Robin’s analysis of his life. At least with Johnny and Yosaku there they won’t go too far into it, they’ll still irritate him with subtle remarks though, but what else is new?

 

“Hey, you smell different.” Johnny says suddenly and sniffs the air again.

 

“Oh, it’s the thing Ace gave me.” Zoro shrugs. He hears the footstep a moment before and is already turned and looking when a wave of fire surges over the back of the sofa to rematerialise in the form of Ace.

 

“What’s that about me? My ears were burning.” Ace grins, clearly pleased as shit at his joke.

 

Zoro hopes that ignoring that terrible joke, one that Ace has been using for years, will somehow encourage him to stop making the damn fire puns. Zoro holds up his arm and puts his wrist near Ace’s face so that he can smell the oil.

 

“Hey! You used it!” Ace exclaims happily.

 

“Zoro changing his habits? Nami, are the stars aligned for this kind of miraculous event?” Robin asks with a catlike smile.

 

“Hm, no stars, sorry. Maybe something a little closer to earth.” Nami responds with an equally devious smile.

 

“Remind me why I missed you?” Zoro grumbles, taking his hand back.

 

“Because I’m perfect in every way.” Nami beams smugly.

 

Zoro catches movement out of the corner of his eye and he turns a little and watches Johnny and Yosaku nudging each other and looking at Zoro’s inkwork, clearly they’ve come to the same conclusion as Nami. Thankfully they can’t give him too much shit about it, even though they’re his friends. He’s thankly limited to three people allowed to give him shit about this kind of stuff, though it’s four when he includes Ace’s ability to tease him slightly because he’s Luffy’s family. He and Ace aren’t nakama but they’re more than friends, the fact that he’s Luffy’s brother by choice puts him halfway between.

 

“Nice job on the ink by the way.” Ace says casually, though from the tone of his voice he knows that Ace is utterly aware that he didn’t paint it himself.

 

The door handle to the room jiggles for a second before the door squeaks open and a whirl of blond hair, long legs and food. Sanji kicks the door shut behind him and beams at them all. Zoro supposes that at least he’s not wearing white today, he’s got black slacks on and the same kind of gravity defying loose shirt on that he often has. Zoro has no idea how those things work, they barely seem to touch him despite having so much thin fabric to them. Even without the huge tray of food and drink he would have been able to tell that Sanji had just come from the kitchen as he still has a dishtowel tucked into his belt at the side.

 

“Morning! I have-” Sanji starts to say.

 

“FOOD!” Ace yells, leaping to his feet like he’s not eaten in a year.

 

Suddenly there’s a crash from one of the rooms down the hall and a scramble of activity. Nami sighs and Robin carefully puts her coffee cup under the sofa and pulls her feet up onto the sofa as well.

 

“FOOD! GIVE ME!” Luffy yells at the top of his lungs, flinging himself into the room and towards Sanji.

 

The blonde’s eyes widen and Zoro watches Sanji shift his balance to his left leg and tilts his hip, he also angles the tray right as Luffy comes close to him at high speed, turning it so that it’s almost facing into the attack. He catches Luffy on one foot and then rights the tray as the momentum shifts them both, not a thing is spilled or even jostled.

 

“Luffy you ass, get back here, if you make him spill it then we won’t get to eat anything!” Ace barks, grabbing Luffy by the neck and hauling him away.

 

“That’s some balance you got there.” Johnny says with a low impressed whistle.

 

“That’s… what? Sorry I didn’t understand.” Sanji frowns.

 

“He’s impressed with your balance. Can I help?” Zoro offers standing up.

 

“Oh, thank you uh… Johnny wasn’t it?” Sanji asks uncertainly.

 

“That’s me!” he replies with a thumbs up and a grin. Zoro rolls his eyes, his friends are idiots, it’s probably why they get on so well.

 

“And yeah, be useful for a change, asshole.” Sanji adds, answering Zoro’s question.

 

“You two are funny!” Luffy laughs loudly.

 

“That’s one word for it.” Ace chuckles.

 

Zoro helps Sanji unload everything from his unbelievably large and heavily packed tray onto the table, trying to make room for everything as he goes. Sanji has gone all out here, bread and meats both fresh cooked and cold, fresh juices thick with pulp and delicate pastries. Baratie must be getting to him because Zoro is starting to see and appreciate how Sanji puts meals together and what things balance each other out. He knows that the jam that Sanji is putting down now is really tart and sour, but when he mixes it with that sweet yoghurt there it’s perfect.

 

“I’m gonna go get Kaku before Luffy eats everything.” Yosaku says, getting up and walking off.

 

“Is Kaku okay?” Sanji asks in Baratian, making Zoro nearly drop the pot of coffee in shock.

 

“Don’t ask that!” Zoro balks, staring at Sanji with wide eyes. What kind of idiot just says that?!

 

“What? It was a reasonable question!” Sanji argues and Zoro is so glad that this conversation isn’t happening in Tsukian and that Ace and Luffy are too distracted by the food to pay much attention.

 

“Asking after your opponent after you beat them that badly in a fight is quite insulting, but that would be if you asked your opponent himself. Asking after him to Zoro is… socially inadvisable. You’re acting as if he’s nakama to you or perhaps a small child, alternatively you could be demanding that Zoro divulge information that you shouldn’t be asking after, even if they’re just friends rather than nakama.” Robin explains calmly.

 

“Seriously? It was just a question.” Sanji pouts.

 

“That’s not the point.” Zoro sighs and puts the last thing down. He snags a pastry before Luffy can shovel them all into his gaping maw.

 

“True, but so is asking you if you pinned Zoro down and made him moan when you painted him last night.” Robin says lightly.

 

Zoro gasps and rapidly remembers that he can’t breathe pastry and then has to cough very hard to not choke. Sanji however has turned a brilliant red and looks horrified.

 

“R-Robin! I-” Sanji stammers out in mortification.

 

“It was just a question.” Robin says lightly and Sanji nods jerkily.

 

“Okay.” He says in a traumatised tone of voice.

 

“What was that about?” Nami asks as she looks between the three of them with both curiosity and confusion on her face.

 

“Oh, just a language lesson.” Robin says innocently, answering Nami’s question in the same Tsukian which it had been asked in.

 

Still red faced, Sanji crouches down with the empty tray and slides it under the table out of the way. Luffy and Ace start piling their plates up high with some of everything on the table, though both of them clearly favouring the meat.

 

Zoro hears Kaku’s footsteps and the way they halt when he’s close enough to the sofa to see Sanji crouched down by the table with the tray. Zoro sees the way that Sanji’s muscles tense, he doesn’t react much but he sure as hell doesn’t take his eyes off of Kaku.

 

“Kaku! Sanji brought us breakfast!” Luffy shouts through half a mouthful of food.

 

Some people would think that Luffy is an idiot, and now and then they’d be right. Luffy does some real dumb shit now and then and he never obviously shows that he’s smart, but what he just did was smart and subtle. Luffy wants everyone to get on and he doesn’t want one of the knights that he’s in charge of making more of an incident out of this visit than he already has, the King accepted Sanji’s argument about the previous fight but if more keep happening then things are going to get bad for everyone. So Luffy acts happy, invites Kaku over in a way where he’d have to refuse eating at all to ignore him, he’s also not acknowledging any tension between the two and so if Kaku wants to keep that up too it’ll have to be a deliberate thing. Luffy is smart. He’s not meddling by any means, he’s not controlling their behavior, just setting up the situation enough that he limits their responses as he wants.

 

Or maybe he’s just excited about food. With Luffy it’s hard to tell.

 

“Morning.” Sanji says after a second and stands up.

 

“Yes?” Kaku frowns.

 

“Oh, wait, that was wrong. I meant good morning.” Sanji corrects himself, switching from mumbled Baratian back to Tsukian with his corrected greeting.

 

“Oh.” Kaku says, latching on to what Sanji meant, “Good morning your highness.”

 

“Come, have something to eat.” Sanji says brightly, like he didn’t just threaten to put his foot through the man’s ribcage yesterday.

 

“Thank you.” Kaku responds and walks around the sofa to sit down. He’s being a little formal with Sanji, but nothing wrong. Zoro supposes that Kaku could be trying to make up for yesterday.

 

“Is there any else you need? I can get it if-” Sanji starts offering, at this rate the dumbass will spend all morning running from here to the kitchen.

 

“Sit your ass down, idiot. There won’t be anything left if you don’t start soon.” Zoro says with a roll of his eyes. Sanji is always like this, he runs about trying to feed other people and doesn’t bother to start feeding himself until he’s one hundred percent satisfied that everyone else has everything they could possibly want.

 

“No one asked you.” Sanji shoots back childishly, but he does move over to Zoro and sit down on the sofa next to him. By which Zoro means that he goes to the sofa and elbows him in the head until Zoro moves up to give him enough space, what’s worse is that he’s pretty sure that Sanji would have been happy to sit anywhere else but simply wanted to annoy him.

 

“Hey Zoro you should-” Ace says suddenly and tries to shove a pastry towards Zoro’s face. Unfortunately Zoro is a trained warrior and his knee-jerk reflex for someone suddenly pushing their hand towards his face is to defend. He jerks his arm up and bats Ace’s hand to the side quickly and decisively, deflecting the dangerous… pastry. This of course means that he ends up with pastry flakes all over his leather breastplate. It doesn’t help Zoro’s dignity that Luffy bursts out laughing or that Sanji snorts in amusement too, though he knows that the other man would be angry if the pastry that Ace had was ruined. Wasting food in Sanji’s presence is a surefire way to end up with a foot to the face.

 

When Zoro looks up he notices that Ace and Luffy are laughing at him and Nami eventually sighs and points out where Zoro had missed a large chunk of pastry but noticeably Kaku is staring at him like he’s trying to work out some kind of puzzle.

 

“Ace, your hand is covered in jam.” Sanji notes, looking around Zoro to get a better look at Ace now that he’s done sniggering at Zoro’s misfortune.

 

“I’m goo’d wi’ ‘at.” Ace says around the fingers that he’s stuffed in his mouth to solve this problem.

 

Sanji sighs and mutters something under his breath before reaching out and grabbing a napkin. Sanji leans over across Zoro, offering the napkin to Ace who grins and scrubs his spit and jam covered hand with the napkin. As he reaches across though, Sanji’s long sleeved light blue shirt pulls up a little and Zoro sees the waves around his wrist and feels himself smile involuntarily at the sight of it.

 

“I know that scent.” Ace grins, though his amused eyes are on Zoro.

 

“That what?” Sanji frowns in confusion.

 

“Scent, it means the same thing as smell.” Robin explains easily.

 

“Do you have to have so many different words for the same thing?” Sanji grumbles in Baratian before switching back to Tsukian with a bright smile.

 

“Thanks I like it, it’s… it’s… ugh, fuck this language. It’s-” And then Sanji says something in Baratian that Zoro doesn’t know the meaning of. He frowns, he’s heard it before though but he struggles to place it. It’s only when Sanji’s blue shirt flutters before Zoro’s eyes does it come back to him, right before the ball Sanji said that to him about how he looked.

 

“What does that mean?” Nami asks, and Zoro is glad that she does, that way he doesn’t have to look dumb to Sanji when he asks.

 

“It’s a good thing.” Robin says absently and leans down to get her coffee cup from under the sofa where she’d placed it to avoid Luffy spilling it. Zoro frowns, he knew that already.

 

“Oh, speaking of things that I don’t understand. You left me this.” Sanji says in Baratian, turning his attention to Zoro. The blond shifts in his seat, moving to face him slightly and his knee is up against Zoro’s thigh and he can’t help but think that he’d only have to pull Sanji a little closer and he’d have the man in his lap. Sanji shifts a little higher and for a moment he really does think that Sanji is going to slide into his lap, and though that would be stupidly inappropriate in front of this many people he still wants him to. He doesn’t though, he settles himself back down and hands Zoro a piece of paper.

 

Zoro flicks it open and sees that it’s the note that he left for Sanji.

 

“Yeah? I thought I should let you know.” He replies. Sanji’s face scrunches up in distaste for a moment.

 

“You don’t mean that.” Sanji says, a hint of irritation around him.

 

“Huh? Yeah I did.” Zoro answers.

 

“No you didn’t. I believe you meant that you’d let him know where you were, you changed your tone and mispronounced ‘let’ and it came across more that you would ‘teach him a lesson’ in a pretty aggressive way.” Robin explains and Sanji gets an air of ‘I told you so’ so thick around him that it’s a wonder that Zoro can still breathe.

 

“Okay, I didn’t mean that. But you knew what I meant.” Zoro grumbles, still not seeing why Sanji couldn’t just have explained that and moved on.

 

“Yes, but you being wrong makes me happy.” Sanji beams. Zoro glares at him, shitty curly browed prince cook.

 

“So what’s your problem?” Zoro asks flatly. He wonders if Sanji knows enough to interpret his flat displeased tone correctly or whether it just sounds like normal Baratian to him.

 

“My problem, idiot, is that I can’t read your stupid language yet. It’s all-” and Sanji then says some word that Zoro doesn’t know, but from the gesture is evidently disapproving of the script that Tsukian is written in.

 

“But you knew where to find me, so you got the idea, you understand it a little.” Zoro reasons. Sanji sighs deeply and rubs his forehead.

 

“No, you idiot, I can’t read it at all. I knew you’d be here because if you weren’t in the house then where the fuck else would you be?” Sanji explains tensely.

 

“Actually, you could have got lost anywhere, so I guess I was just lucky.” Sanji adds with a smug grin.

 

“What do you mean house? This is a palace.” Zoro points out.

 

“You’re a moron.” Sanji grumbles and stands up.

 

“Robin, if any of you need anything else, come find me in the kitchen and I’ll help right away.” Sanji says pleasantly and then heads out of the room, waving goodbye to everyone with a flash of the whirlpool on his wrist as he does so.

 

“What did he mean by house?” Zoro asks, turning to Robin.

 

“He didn’t say house, he said ‘home’. It’s a subtle but different meaning in Baratian. A house is just somewhere that you live, but you’re right to say that it’s the wrong word for a palace, but home is different. They have a saying that home is where the heart is.” Robin explains, briefly switching to Tsukian so that Zoro gets the word.

 

He thinks about that for a moment, about Sanji saying that where the two of them stay is where his heart lies. It’s a surprisingly touching notion but Zoro can’t help but wonder if Sanji means that his heart lies with his home in his own country or in the place that he shares with Zoro. If it’s with his country then… well, Zoro is taking him away from here in just a few days. Though he had to leave his beloved home country to come here, the thought of taking Sanji from a place that he loves makes him feel… wrong inside. Paradoxically he desperately wants to show Sanji where he’s from, introduce him to people and show him a culture that he’s sure that Sanji’s fiery nature would fit into well.

 

“So I’m glad to see that you tried changing your setting oil.” Ace says innocently and takes a long drink of his coffee.

 

“Yeah but Sanji’s used your usual one!” Luffy chips in brightly, crossing a line that Ace couldn’t.

 

“I hadn’t noticed that, how intriguing.” Robin purrs, her eyes glinting dangerously. Why did Zoro have to have two female nakama who excelled in getting information from anyone regardless of whether they wanted to share it with the pair of them or not?

 

“I just remembered, I need to be somewhere else.” Zoro says suddenly, getting up and vaulting over the back of the sofa to the sounds of Luffy’s bright laughter. He’s going to have to have this conversation sooner or later, but he’d rather it be later than sooner. Then again maybe Nami and Robin will have perfected their interrogation by then. Either way, he’d rather not be interrogated in front of his friends as well as his nakama, he should have a little bit of goddamn privacy at least.

 

Zoro slips out of the knights’ quarters and intends to return to his and Sanji’s… home, only he doesn’t end up there. Somehow one of the corridors got twisted around and he ends up outside the back of the palace. He wanders around trying to find his bearings from the outside of the palace, if he can see the walls that he’s familiar with then he can find the nearest entrance for that and it ought to put him indoors near where he should be.

 

The palace is built mostly of stone, just as the buildings in Shimotsuki are, but that’s where the similarity stops. A lot of the outside of the palace is in fact wood. Not wooden planks but actual trees, if anything the castle is more wood than stone from the outside. When he had first ridden up to the palace with Robin, Johnny and Yosaku for the wedding, though the latter pair left as soon as Zoro had been married as they’d only been there to assure he wasn’t assassinated, he’d expressed worry about the palace. He’d thought that it was a stupid idea to have something as flammable as wood running through such a vital building. Robin had however explained that the tree was adam wood and that the stone bricks were likely to melt before the tree burnt. It was possible to burn adam wood because he knows that the small town on the border of Shimotsuki where Robin came from had a tree like it, but it had been destroyed in a military attack by another country. When he’d asked Robin for the details of how it was destroyed she declined to share that information with him and was quiet for a long time after that.

 

The castle is a mishmash of colours, the grey stone of the building, the pale brown of the trees and brilliant green leaves. He wonders what the palace looks like in Autumn, but he supposes that he’ll never know. Autumn is one of the seasons that he’d been adamant that he wanted to be in his own country for. It was the end of Summer now and when they get to Shimotsuki he’d have almost a month before the leaves start turning, that’s always been his favourite time of year and he’d thoroughly refused to give it up. He thinks though that the way the palace sits in the trees is just like Sanji’s culture. Passive isn’t the right word for them. They are a soft and thoughtful people, ill equipped for proper military discipline, though they had their own fighting traditions. He’d always considered them weak, it was part of the reason that he’d not looked forward to his union with Sanji and disliked Sanji himself for some time. But it’s not weakness so much as it is… flexibility. The palace’s architects worked with the tree, moving it to their will and bending to its just as much. When Sanji fights he reacts to the situation and frequently diverts his opponent's force against them before following up with his own devastating power. It’s a kind of harmony with the world that makes it obvious why Baratie never has problems with food supply, working with the forces of nature and their own people is what they do. There’s an inarguable power in that.

 

He sighs and remembers that he’s supposed to be getting back into the palace, not staring at the outside and contemplating Sanji and his culture. He walks around and peers up at the walls. With some hesitation he thinks that he recognises one stretch of wall that he can see from the courtyard that he and Sanji spar in and where Sanji bested Kaku. He heads in that direction and then goes in the nearest door. An unguarded door. With no one around. Zoro cringes at the lack of security and wonders how Zeff and Sanji haven’t been killed by assassins from other countries yet. Next time that he’s here and he and Sanji have done their first year of ‘cultural exchange’ he is really going to have to insist on guards and teaching them about proper security.

 

The first thing that he sees, beyond the lack of security, is a staircase leading up. That’s not right for where he and Sanji are, but he supposes that if he goes up he can come down again. Anyway, the stairs might be going up to avoid a tree route and may well come right back down again. He heads up them and finds that they in fact do not come right back down again, but if he keeps walking then surely they will. Before too long the stone floor gives way to smooth wood and a little after that the walls become wood too. He walks past a servant and decides not to ask for directions, but she stops him nonetheless.

 

“My liege, uh… did the Prince ask you to get something from his room? Not that… not that he would order you around or that you’re a servant I mean. Just… it’s that door that you just walked past, not the one in front of you.” The girl says nervously.

 

Zoro frowns and looks at the door, that’s not Sanji’s room, why would she say that?

 

“Thank you.” He responds anyway, it would be rude not to. He wants to ask more questions but she simply curtsies and rushes off, leaving him alone in the hallway again. With little else to do he opens the door that she had indicated and walks in.

 

The room is entirely adam wood, cut into the very tree, with leaves curling around the edges of the small windows. Zoro looks out of the windows and from this height he can see the shoreline in the distance, and the flat line that shows where the sea becomes the sky. It’s beautiful.

 

The room itself is of a reasonable size, bigger than some of the rooms that Zoro had hopefully stuck his head into, hoping for a staircase behind it. There’s a large bed against one wall, a large wardrobe and a mirror on the other and a large desk on the wall opposite the bed. The woman said that this was Sanji’s room.

 

Curiously Zoro walks to the wardrobe and opens it, the clothes inside look like they are Sanji’s size, smart white trousers that would fit the man’s narrow hips and bright clean colours that match his style. This isn’t Sanji’s room though, he’s sure of it. Shutting the wardrobe he finds himself compelled to go to the desk, as if to prove to himself that this isn’t Sanji’s room. Maybe he used it as a study perhaps, or a room to go to if he had business in… in whatever part of the palace this was.

 

In the middle of the desk sits a book and several feather pens and a corked bottle of writing ink. He knows that much from seeing Sanji write, this is the sort of things that Tsukians use, very different from how things are done in Shimotsuki but it serves the same purpose. He flicks the book open to a random page and is surprised to see that the book is handwritten. The Baratians have printing technology, so there’s no reason for someone who lives or works in a palace to have a handwritten book like this. He flicks the pages and sees that they all are handwritten, but partly before the end the pages become blank. Curious and confused he shuts the book and notes that the cover is familiar. It’s a leather cover in blue but there are ink designs painted in of waves and swirls, pictures that Zoro can see repeated in one of the bands on his wrist of the hand that holds the book shut.

 

An uncomfortable feeling gnaws at Zoro’s gut and his eyes fall on the bookshelf next to the desk. It’s low and not so much built as it is carved into the very wall. It’s filled with similarly designed books in hues of blue and white in a fading repeating pattern. There’s a dark blue book, a book a shade lighter than that, then a shade after that and finally a white one. This four book pattern repeats over and over and Zoro suddenly remembers having seen Sanji with a white book, sometimes in his room and sometimes sitting at their dining table in their wing of the palace.

 

He crouches down and selects a book at random near the right most edge of the shelving. He pulls it out and though he can’t read the flowing script of Sanji’s language any more than Sanji can read his it’s still handwritten just like the one on the desk. He moves further to his left, close to the beginning and the writing here is clumsier, not as smooth as the words in the one on the desk. He flicks through it, this looks like child’s writing. An image flashes past and Zoro pauses, flicking back until he finds it. There’s an ink and pencil drawing here. A childish drawing of a man with a circle for a body and stick legs with another circular face. There’s squiggles coming off of his face and a scowling expression on it. The figure is wearing a hat of some kind, a tall one. He realises suddenly that this is meant to be Zeff and then realises that some of the squiggles above Zeff’s head appear to be… stink lines? There’s a smaller figure, better drawn, with a big smile on its face and holding above his head a cake that has sparkles drawn around it.

 

He shuts the book sharply.

 

This is Sanji’s book. Some kind of handwritten journal or record of his life spanning back from a small child to his current age. The one that he’s seen Sanji with must be the most recent. With all of this and what the woman says that means that this is Sanji’s room. It doesn’t make sense, Sanji doesn’t live here, he sleeps in the same wing as Zoro. But at one time he lived here.

  
Sanji left his room to move to somewhere that Zoro could stay. Where Sanji and Usopp could be near each other, where he and Robin could too and where they had privacy from the rest of the palace. Sanji left his childhood room for him and now Zoro is going to make Sanji leave his whole country for him. Sanji had told him that he was scared about the language, he’s probably afraid of moving too, of leaving behind the place that he’s always known. Zoro has missed his home of course, but he’s been away from it before on military maneuvers and missions, he’s been exploring and had adventures with his nakama. He’s never been away as long as this, but knowing he was going to go home made it okay. He doesn’t even know if Sanji has ever left his own country. He can’t stay in Baratie forever though, he’ll come back. He can’t protect Sanji from every thing that hurts him or upsets him, he’d be foolish to think that he can, but he’ll do everything that he can to make Shimotsuki feel like a home for Sanji. He can’t stop leaving Baratie hurting Sanji, but he can dull the pain. 


	13. Chapter 13

Sanji stares blankly inside his wardrobe, his mind on anything but his clothes. It only gets vaguely back into that area when Usopp comes in his room and yells in horror. 

“SANJI THE BALL IS IN HALF AN HOUR WHY THE HELL ARE YOU STANDING THERE IN JUST YOUR UNDERWEAR?!” Usopp shrieks at him in wide eyed terror. Sanji blinks at him stupidly. 

“I was… I was looking at what to wear and I thought that I don’t know what I’m going to pack to go to Shimotsuki. I don’t know what I need or what people will think of me when I’m there. I know that I pissed Kaku off for fun but-” Sanji starts, staring into his wardrobe and wondering what people will make of him.

“That is a problem for TOMORROW Sanji, not right before a ball. God, come here, look just… sit your dumb ass down.” Usopp wails and shoves Sanji onto his bed. 

Sanji’s hands grip his bed. Tomorrow will be his last whole day in Baratie, they leave first thing the morning after that. Then he’ll be on his way to Zoro’s country. He had thought that he was ready for this, that he was just worried about the language. When Zoro had told him about the kinds of relationships that his people had and they’d agreed that they didn’t fit into any of them it hadn’t worried him. Now though, he’s worried. 

He looks down at the water wrapped around his wrist and wonders what the hell it’s supposed to mean. He’s seen how Zoro feels about his friends, and how he feels about his nakama but he knows that he doesn’t truly understand what either of those words mean to Zoro. So much of their communication is the pair of them settling on the closest word to what they mean, even Robin and Usopp sometimes struggle to pick the word that best embodies a complex concept in one language to another. 

Trousers hit Sanji in the shoulder and fall onto the bed and a pair of boots skid across the floor to his feet. 

“A shirt, a shirt… come on…” Usopp mutters under his breath, rummaging through Sanji’s wardrobe as fast as he can. 

“Usopp, what are we?” Sanji asks slowly. Usopp has been his friend since they were kids and he’s no idea how he would have got through this whole thing without him, but what does that mean in Shimotsuki?

“We’re late is what we are.” Usopp mutters from the depths of Sanji’s wardrobe. 

“Usopp, stop.” Sanji sighs, getting up and shutting one door of the wardrobe and making the other man look at him. 

“Look, I don’t understand Zoro’s culture. I don’t know what Zoro and I are and he doesn’t either, it doesn’t fit anything his culture has and there’s stuff with us that doesn’t make sense here either. If I saw anyone else arguing with their husband as much as I argue with Zoro I’d think something was wrong. Nothing makes sense and I know that Zoro’s relationship with Nami is different to what he has with Kaku, even though Zoro had to tell me that but I don’t really get how.” Sanji explains quickly. 

“Now I’ve got to go there and I don’t know if I’ll get anything at all, but his culture is part of yours too and if I stand a chance of understanding any of this bullshit then it’s with you. But I don’t even know what Zoro would call us.” Sanji says, staring down at the floor. 

“Sanji, what are you talking about?” Usopp questions him quietly.

“I mean, that if I don’t even know what we are, then how can I understand anything else?” Sanji reiterates as he scowls at the floor. 

“I think of you as my friend. I’ve known you for most of my life, I respect you and I trust you. Even if you hadn’t spoken Tsukian I’d still have wanted you to come there with me. I know that I’m a jerk to you sometimes but you’re able to see things that I can’t, I’d kick the ass of anyone trying to put you down, even though you’d probably tell me not to get into stupid fights over shit like that. To me you’re my friend. Would that be what Zoro would call it though? Are we nakama? Is that what that means?” Sanji asks, looking Usopp in the eyes again. 

“I- no. We’re not.” Usopp groans, banging his head against the door.

“Oh.” Sanji says quietly. He feels stupid for asking a question like that but… hurt too. It’s dumb because his culture doesn’t have nakama, so it shouldn’t mean anything but-

“That’s like asking someone if you’re engaged to them when you never proposed.” Usopp says, not making eye contact with Sanji and instead averting his eyes to the bottom of Sanji’s wardrobe as if it’s completely fascinating. 

“Oh, so you have to actually ask?” Sanji muses. 

“There’s more to it than that. It’s-” Usoppp tries to explain.

“What? Do I have to sing a song? Do a dance? Help me out here Usopp.” Sanji grins and Usopp returns to smacking his head on the door. 

“We don’t have time for this, I need to find you a shirt.” Usopp mutters and opens up the wardrobe door again that Sanji had shut. Sanji leans over and shuts it, earning a frustrated sound from Usopp.

“Sorry, I was just screwing with you.” Sanji apologises.

“Yeah, I know.” Usopp says quietly, his shoulders falling. Sanji is starting to get the sense that he’s fucking this bit up.

“You know me, I run my mouth faster than my brain. Also Zoro is a bad influence on me.” he insists. Stupid idiot prince. 

“Yeah, I know.” Usopp repeats, still not looking at Sanji.

“I meant it though. If all I have to do is ask, then that’s what I want. I want to be your nakama.” Sanji insists and Usopp’s gaze snaps to him suddenly with wide eyed intensity.

Sanji swallows and is very conscious that he doesn’t want to fuck this up. Wait, shit, that wasn’t a question was it?

“Will you be my nakama?” He asks uncertainly. Shit, he is fucking this up, isn’t- oh wait, no. He suddenly has Usopp’s arms around his neck and a bawling face pressed into his shoulder. This has either gone very well or very badly. 

When Usopp pulls back with a smile on his face a mile wide Sanji settles the idea into the ‘very well’ category. 

“Of course I will you idiot!” Usopp laughs, with happy tears running down his face. 

“Okay, okay.” Usopp sniffs, rubbing at his face. Sanji beams, he has a nakama now. Or is it just nakama singular and plural? He’s not sure if- now there’s a shirt on his head. 

“My first job as your nakama is making sure that you’re not late to your own goddamn ball, so move it.” Usopp orders him. Sanji pulls the shirt off of his head and grins. Usopp’s bitching would have more weight behind it if he didn’t look like he was going to explode from joy. 

“Sure thing.” Sanji laughs and slips his shirt over his head. The sleeves finish halfway down his arms in a pronounced and trailing V shape, showing off his band instead of hiding it. After quickly getting dressed and Usopp putting Sanji’s crown on him as quickly as he can while Sanji does his boots up they manage to rush to the ballroom and then walk through the door slow and calm like nothing was wrong. 

Sanji spots Zoro already in the room, sitting near Zeff and talking to his knights. Great, even Zoro made it here before him. Sanji makes his way to his place beside his father, they’ve got the seating set out in the same way that they had for the wedding, with Zoro and Sanji on one side and Sanji’s other relatives on the other side. On the downside Sanji has to be sat right next to Zeff through the dinner, but on the plus side he’s also sitting next to Zoro and pretty far away from his cousins! 

“Cutting it a little fine, stringbean.” Zeff says quietly, looking ahead like he’s not talking to Sanji at all. Sanji spots as the servers start coming out to fill up plates, hitting the top table first with Zeff at the front. 

“Psh, like you’d start without me.” Sanji grins, resting his chin in his hand.

“Yes, we couldn’t go on without you and your ego driving us forward.” the old man deadpans, looking Sanji side on. 

“I’m glad you admit it!” Sanji chirps happily and Zeff sighs deeply. 

“Get your elbows off of the table brat, I raised you better than that.” Zeff scolds him under his breath. That at least Sanji obliges him with. 

“Come on, I have to annoy you, I’m gonna be gone for seven months, I have to make up for the time that I’m going to lose!” Sanji insists. 

Zeff doesn’t say anything but Sanji feels the air get heavier between them. Sanji glances at Zoro but the other man is engrossed in both eating and talking to Robin and Nami, he’s not paying any attention. He turns back to Zeff.

“This was your idea, remember? You contacted his father first.” Sanji says quietly, not saying Zoro’s name in order to avoid attracting his attention. 

Zeff doesn’t reply, he just twitches his moustache and eats. 

“Nami seems to have found some faster route to get between here and Shimotsuki, so it might not even be that long if we don’t have to spend a month each way travelling.” Sanji points out.

“I’ve no idea what route that is. The only sane route out of here is through the gorge in the mountains to Drum or out over the East Blue and down through the white sea, then through Alabaster. The first one takes a month even on horseback and the second takes nearly two.” Zeff says with a frown. 

“I’ve no idea, Nami says they did it in just over two weeks.” Sanji shrugs. He’s not got that great of a grasp of the geography outside of Baratie, only just the countries on the east coast with sea borders. He’s never actually been outside of Baratie before in his life. Whenever Zeff was away visiting other countries Sanji was the one who stayed in the country ruling it in his stead, so he didn’t know all that much about other places. Until he found out that he was being married to Zoro he never really cared exactly where Shimotsuki was. Oh, everyone had heard of what Tsukians were like of course, but he’d never figured that he’d meet one in person. 

“So you think that she’s a witch?” Zeff says in quiet curiosity, looking over at Nami. 

Sanji looks at her and squints. He’s never seen Nami fight and he knows by now not to ask a lady where or what her weapons are, Robin and Zoro had educated him on that point. Witches were powerful, usually women and generally not people anyone wanted to fuck with. Their powers ranged wildly from witch to witch, but the theory was that any witch could learn any spell given enough time, but they tended to be inclined to one area of magic or another. 

“I don’t think so. Zoro never mentioned if if she is, she doesn’t look like a witch to me.” Sanji says dubiously.

“You’ve never met a witch.” Zeff scoffs. Sanji glares at him, that’s not the point. Witches were usually old, it took a long time to hone magic and lots of them lived way longer lives than should be possible. Nami by comparison was young, beautiful and delicate. 

“Well, however she does it, let me know. We’re supposed to be trading with Shimotsuki as part of our agreement. I’m supposed to send you back with plenty of tools to evaluate their agriculture and fix it, plus get them started in some areas too. It would be far better if we could do that without having to drag travelling caravans through Alabaster.” Zeff says thoughtfully. 

“I always wanted to go to Alabaster, maybe I can convince Zoro to go there with me for diplomacy or something.” Sanji says wistfully.

“Diplomacy? They’re our oldest ally and we’ve got a far stronger connection to them than anyone else does. What possible diplomatic reasons could you have to go there?” Zeff asks with a dismissive snort. 

“I’m sure I’ll think of something.” Sanji shrugs. 

He wants to go to Alabaster then he’s damn well going to go there. Besides, if he’s going to be a multi country touring prince then he ought to exploit that. Maybe he could try taking the scenic route over the ocean, Zoro might never have been on a boat for all that Sanji knows, Shimotsuki itself is land locked after all, a concept so weird to Sanji that he tries not to think about it. How is he going to survive in a country without an ocean to swim in or look at? Before he married Zoro he lived in a different part of the castle and there he could see the ocean from his window. He thinks that he’s going to miss the ocean the most. Maybe he can take a bottle of it with him, it’s stupid but it might help.

Sanji reaches out for the wine, wine will definitely help this problem of having unpleasant emotions. He can’t be homesick before he’s even left home.

“Hm, so you’re doing that now then, eggplant?” Zeff asks, gesturing to the ink on Sanji’s wrist. Sanji opens his mouth to explain but Zeff starts talking again. 

“They all wore them when I visited Zoro’s father, not that Zoro was there for that, he was off fighting someone for something somewhere.” Zeff says with a wave of his hand.

“Specific.” Sanji shoots back.

“Shut up. He explained that they’re to do with victories, so I’m guessing you got that for kicking the shit out of that knight huh?” Zeff says, looking at the mark in interest. 

“Yeah. You also have to have witnesses to it, so I’ve only just started counting them. I think it’s a cool thing to keep track of, it probably discourages you from getting into fights unless they’re serious and you’re willing to risk one.” Sanji says, turning his wrist this way and that to admire it more. Zoro’s skin is far darker than his so he wonders if his mark will stick around longer on his pale skin in comparison to Zoro’s.

“It’s an interesting way to stop a culture obsessed with fighting descending into anarchy. They seem to really value honour in fights too. Something that you could learn from.” Zeff says with an amused quirk of his moustache. 

“OI! Are you saying that I have no honour in fights?!” Sanji demands rather loudly and he sees that Zoro suddenly starts paying attention to the conversation now, out of the corner of his eye he spots Zoro turning towards him. 

“No, I’m saying that you pick fights too easily. I’m just pleased that you moved from actually fighting people to just arguing with them.” the old geezer answers with a snort. Sanji glares at him and petulantly falls back in his chair and folds his arms sulkily.

“It’s not MY fault that they all talk shit. You’re the one who associates with those nobles. I know they’re important for looking after our people in their areas, but they’re a bunch of stuck up fucking bastards that I wouldn’t trust to find their own ass with both hands and a map. They’re the ones who were so happy to see me married off to some foreign savage brute, probably hoped that I’d get killed in the process.” Sanji says darkly. 

“You know you switched languages there. Was that deliberate or are you forgetting which one you’re speaking?” the old man questions, looking at him curiously.

“No, it’s just better for cursing in.” Sanji sniffs. 

“So, what were you SLANDERING ME about?” Zoro asks, looking at Sanji piercingly.

“Tone, Zoro, tone.” Sanji sighs, looking at him. Zoro glares at him and grits his teeth before taking a deep breath and trying again.

“What were you saying about me just then?” He asks, his voice more controlled. 

“Well, I’d never met you before, had I?” Sanji shrugs, “Tsukians have a reputation for war and aggression, the fact that your agriculture’s gone to shit didn’t help that image. I’d never met anyone from your country and neither had any of the nobles here. You weren’t exactly what I expected.”

“What did you… think? What was the word you just…?” Zoro frowns, not having caught the word.

“Expect.” Sanji repeats.

“Expect.” Zoro nods.

“I don’t know. I expected some aggressive, smelly, hairy, brute. I was wrong though, you’re not hairy!” Sanji snickers and Zoro smacks him in the arm with a glare. 

“Heh, glad to see that you don’t let him get away with shit either Zoro.” Zeff chuckles and Zoro pales for a moment, clearly having forgotten that Zeff was there at all. He relaxes a little as he processes Zeff’s approval and grins smugly at Sanji. Sanji frowns, it’s not that he doesn’t want his father and Zoro to get on, he does, he’d just rather that they didn’t decide to team up in annoying him. 

“Well what did you think that you were gonna get when you married me then?” Sanji challenges, because he knows that from the way that he and Zoro interacted with each other at the beginning of their marriage that it can’t have been good. 

“Well,” Zoro frowns and then switches languages. “Some pathetic, weak, pale twig that’d break if he sneezed. All dressed in flowers and girly shit who would faint at the first sight of danger. I’d planned to just have you guarded constantly because no way would you survive anything.” Zoro admits. 

“I was really wrong.” Zoro smiles and Sanji’s heart flutters because Zoro really means it. 

“Tsukian royalty is royalty because of fighting ability. Yours isn’t, I didn’t even know how it was done, I… still don’t actually.” Zoro admits with a frown. It’s mainly through ancestry, but there are different dynasties further back from revolutions but it’s been about 800 years since that last one happened thanks to one of Sanji’s long dead ancestors.

“When he saw you he asked if it was done by-” Robin starts to say, a laugh in her tone. Whatever she was going to say is muffled by Zoro doing an impressive leap to lean over Usopp and shove his hand over her mouth.

“Robin!” He exclaims and Sanj is highly intrigued to know what Robin was going to say if it got that kind of reaction from his husband. He makes a mental note to ask Robin later, especially as Robin leans in and talks to Nami who then peers around to look at Sanji and then bursts into fits of giggles and making Zoro curse threats at her. 

“I’ve got to know what they said now.” Sanji purrs, leaning in to Zoro’s space.

“No you don’t. Weren’t we talking about my country?” Zoro says sharply, his tone makes Zeff look over but from Sanji’s lack of reaction he shrugs it off. Zeff has heard enough of Sanji’s complaining about the Tsukian language and it’s rough carelessness with tone and the hilariously wrong words that it makes Zoro say. 

“If I want to be king then I have to beat the king in a fight, when you turn eighteen you have to fight them by law anyway. If someone who isn’t royalty beats the king in a formal duel then they and their family become royalty.” Zoro explains. Sanji actually didn’t know that, for some reason no one up until now had thought to tell him that. He squints at Zoro and remembers every time that he’s seen him shirtless, that is an idea strong enough to distract him from whatever it was that he interrupted Robin from saying.

“Is that how you got that huge fucking scar on your chest?” Sanji asks, tapping the man’s chest.

“Yeah, it nearly killed me. If you don’t fight like you mean it you’re disowned. He gave me as much as he thought I could handle and then some, he trusted that I was strong enough not to die and I was.” Zoro shrugs. Sanji flinches in horror and looks at Zeff, the old man gives him shit and the brawl with each other often enough but Zeff would never fight him that hard, hard enough that he could die. 

“But what if he had killed you? You’re his only child, his only heir!” Sanji asks in horror. 

“If I had died from it or not put up a good fight then I wouldn’t be an heir worth having.” Zoro shrugs casually. Sanji is… slightly horrified actually. 

“I don’t have to fight your father, right?” Sanji asks wide eyed.

He and Zoro spar all of the time, to let of steam and for fun. None of them count as real matches because it’s just them playing really. Either that or they spend the time watching for weak points in each others techniques. Zoro helped him spot that he always leaves himself open on his left side for a split second when he moves into his Mutton Shot attack, since Zoro told him that they’ve practiced until that weak spot isn’t there. Similarly Sanji has helped Zoro be a little more subtle with the attack that he’s got planned next. They make each other better. Even with that though Sanji suspects that Zoro may well be slightly better than him in a real fight, he’s been raised as a warrior his whole life and though Sanji’s trained it’s not going to be nearly as intensively as Zoro has. So if Zoro lost to his father then what’s going to happen to him if he has to fight him.

Zoro’s laugh put Sanji at ease, it’s not Zoro mocking him, just him finding the idea funny.

“You only have to do that if you want to become king of Shimotsuki instead of me. As it is when I’m king you’ll be a… Robin, what’s Sanji gonna be when I’m king? Because we’re married I mean?” Zoro asks, tipping his chair back so that he can see Robin a few seats down.

“I don’t actually know what that is in Baratian. Ask the king?” Robin suggests. 

Sanji turns to his father with a frown and pokes him in the arm. Zeff is talking to one of the nobles, something that Sanji knows that Zeff doesn’t even like. Zeff is just more tactful about it than Sanji is. 

“What is it brat?” Zeff finally says, turning back to Sanji after he kicks him under the table again to get his attention. Sanji decides to rephrase Zoro’s question, he can just take whatever word it is that Robin said and he didn’t catch in Zoro’s language, but he wants to know what it is in Baratian. 

“What will Zoro be when I’m king and he’s married to me? Cause my mother was a queen, but Zoro’s not going to be king.” Sanji says, quickly skirting over the topic of his mother, Zeff doesn’t like to talk about her ever but in this context Sanji can’t avoid referencing her. 

Zeff leans back in his chair and thinks for a little while, twisting the ends of his giant moustache thoughtfully.

“For the last few generations our royal line has married the opposite sex. But… my great grandmother married a woman. I think that they were Queen and Crown Princess. So if we did the same then Zoro would be a Crown Prince, not a King.” Zeff answers with further moustache twirling.

“But I’m the Crown Prince now, how does that work?” Sanji frowns in confusion.

“Dumbass, Crown Prince makes you next in line for the throne and uncontested. So when I abdicate or die-” Zeff says.

“You’re not dying. You’re not allowed, I forbid it.” Sanji says firmly. 

“Idiot. So when I die you’ll be King and Zoro would be King if you died by default, unless you had a kid by then who wanted to be King and was old enough. If that was the case then Zoro would be second in line and just a Prince I suppose. Right now he’s second in line.” Zeff frowns. 

“Oh, I just had a great thought!” Sanji exclaims brightly and turns to Zoro.

“Absalom keeps going on about how he’s third in line for the throne, it’s me, then his older brother, then him. Because of you he’s fourth, and if we have a kid he’s fifth!” Sanji laughs. 

“That’d piss him off. If I can’t stab him can I at least rub that in his face?” Zoro grins wide, his eyes gleaming dangerously.

“Psh, Zoro, please. You are a novice at pissing off my cousin, I have it down to an art form. Though… Zeff probably wouldn’t kick your ass for doing it deliberately like he does with me.” Sanji admits and considers the merit for siccing Zoro on Absalom instead.

“It’s not nice to talk about people behind their backs in a language that they can’t understand.” Zeff says, jabbing Sanji in the ribs a little on the hard side. 

“Good thing that I’m not nice then isn’t it?” Sanji smirks and Zeff elbows him again harder. Sanji thinks that if they weren’t in front of a few hundred people he’d be getting a foot to the head right now. That’s the one nice thing about formal balls. 

“I changed my mind, I’m not going to miss you when you’re gone. Shipping you away for seven months of the year is the best deal that I ever made, shitty brat.” Zeff growls at him. 

Sanji blinks at him in stunned surprise and then slowly smiles, that’s the closest thing that he’s going to get to Zeff admitting that he is going to miss him when he’s away. 

“Yeah, well, even if it’s going to be hot as hell in Shimotsuki and everyone’s going to be angry and waving swords around it’ll still be more relaxing than here with you.” Sanji shoots back and sees a twitch of a smile at the edge of his old man’s mouth. 

“You two are so fucking weird.” Zoro mutters quietly in Tsukian and refills his delicate wineglass. Sanji kicks Zoro under the table without breaking eye contact with his father and hears Zoro swear as the wine presumably spills. 

The rest of the meal passes pleasantly, with conversation between Zoro and Sanji for a change, mainly consisting of Zoro leading Sanji into explaining about the food and why the courses go as they do and how the wine matches things. Had he been a little more suspicious he might have noticed that it completely stopped him from asking about Robin’s previous interjection. 

Sanji’s evening gets significantly worse when the plates are cleared and Zeff turns to him with a no nonsense expression on his face.

“Go. Socialize. No arguing.” Zeff orders him. 

“I haven’t had enough wine for that.” Sanji grumbles and gets to his feet, he tops up his glass rather readily with the strongest stuff to hand. He glances at Zoro who is talking with interest to Usopp about weapons and fighting. He can see the excitement on Usopp’s face and knows full well how excited Usopp is to go to his father’s home country and how badly he wants to fit in there. He should probably let Usopp keep that conversation, plus Zoro looks happy too and Sanji should be merciful and spare Zoro the horror of that. 

He sighs and walks off. Should he go for the least unpleasant people first and work his way through the shitty ones as the evening goes on and his lack of sobriety makes it less awful, or should he start at the worst and make his way to the nicest ones, knowing that it will only get better from there? Sanji looks over at his cousins and shudders, perhaps somewhere in the middle is the best place to start. He sees a bunch of the nobles and decides to start there, that way he can get several out of the way at once. 

One of the nice things about being a prince is he rarely has to come up with conversation starters, so many people want to gain his favour that they all but fall over themselves to suck up to him. Presumably their motive is to make him like them so that they’ll do well when Zeff dies and Sanji is king. Too bad that Zeff is never going to die and Sanji will deny any existence of his father’s mortality because he simply cannot think of it. Zeff is untouchable and immortal as far as Sanji is concerned and it’s one of his childhood delusions that he holds onto with a vice like grip.

“Prince Sanji, how lovely to see you.” One of them says brightly.

“Likewise.” Sanji smiles with false sincerity. 

“So I hear that it’s tomorrow morning that you set off for Shimotsuki then, how frightful.” The man says with a shudder. 

“You seemed so convinced that it was an excellent opportunity before.” Sanji says with a plastered on smile. The duplicitous fucker was one of those who insisted on the merit of the idea of an alliance with the other country by marriage. Zeff was convinced mostly on his own but most of them were in favour, some more than others.

“But no, tomorrow we get everything packed and finalised, the plan is to leave the morning after that, but I suppose if we get done relatively early we might move it forward. It’s the captain and Zoro’s call really.” Sanji adds, before the noble can splutter his way into bullshitting a defence. Now if he goes back to it then it’ll seem like wrongdoing. Sanji appreciates the forthrightness that Zoro seems to advocate and from what he’s seen his knights do too, except perhaps for Kaku. It’s nice and if it holds up in Shimotsuki it will be a welcome break, but the strict manners and social conventions around language here does make it an interesting intellectual game to insult people without actually insulting them. 

“You’re going to be there five months though. They’re all pretty savage from what I hear, but they are good at war which is what we need. With other countries starting to sail into our waters and the ambitiously named ‘world navy, trying to sneak their way through, well, it feels like the sharks are circling. Terrible that you should have to pay the price though.” One of the other nobles, Alan, says regretfully. He too was in favour of the marriage but he at least put his support in as an unpleasant necessity. His views mirrored what Sanji’s own had been before his marriage. 

“I don’t know about that. Zoro’s actually… pretty great. His knights seem decent too, a little strange…” Sanji says, glancing over his shoulder as Luffy and his brother Ace laugh loudly with each other, “but good people.”

“I wouldn’t trust them, I would keep on your guard. I don’t approve of any of this.” Blueno says darkly, looking past Sanji at the knights and Zoro. Blueno had protested the whole arrangement angrily, so much so that Sanji is surprised to see him talking to the other nobles at all. 

“They seem honest to me. My relationship with Zoro is actually good enough that I would probably have considered marrying him if I knew him for a few years first.” Sanji admits with a flush of embarrassment at saying something so personal, he’s not even said that to Zoro or even Usopp yet. 

The nobles stare at him wide eyed in shock, clearly they had all expected him to be miserable for the rest of his life, some of them had even seemed pleased about the idea at the time. Sanji’s disdain for the nobles wasn’t just one way.

“Either way,” Sanji says, clearing his throat and moving swiftly past that admission “I’m excited to see Shimotsuki. The more that I can find out about their military the more I can work out how to help Baratie.” 

There are approving noises from the collected nobles, Sanji doing his duty is something they all approve of. 

“Even so, I’m not sure that I could handle having a barbarian for a husband.” One of the nobles says with a sniff through his pronounced nose and Sanji’s jaw tightens. Hadn’t he just said that he was happy with Zoro? He resists the urge to kick the noble in the face, Zeff would be severely pissed if he did that. Interacting with Foxy always leaves Sanji with a temptation to violence. 

“So sorry to interrupt you fine gentlemen but I simply must ask my cousin to dance, it’ll be so long until I see him next.” A female voice says and delicate hands appear on Sanji’s shoulders. Sanji tilts his head and sees the smiling face of Conis.

“I couldn’t possibly turn down the request of a lady. My lords.” Sanji nods to them.

“Your highness.” They nod back in return and Sanji turns to lead Conis away. 

“You are an angel Conis, how will I ever live without you?” Sanji sighs happily once they’re out of earshot. He deposits his empty wine glass on a tray as he passes the server and lets her guide him to the dance floor. 

“Miserably I would guess.” She says with a gentle laugh as she turns to face him in a swirl of long blue silk. 

Sanji places one hand on her delicate waist and the other entwined with her hand and they start to move together, dance steps as ingrained into Sanji’s mind as breathing. He could probably waltz in his sleep.

“Or perhaps not, I couldn’t help but overhear your admission about your husband back there.” Conis says quietly as they dance. Sanji feels himself redden again and regrets saying something so private so publicly, his kneejerk reaction to say and do the opposite of what those lot want him to do is really going to land him in trouble one day. 

“So you weren’t just saying it to be contrary then! Oh, I’m so happy for you!” She says, breaking the dance to lean in and hug him close. She lets him go quickly and resumes dancing but Sanji can see her sincerity from the glow in her face and the brightness of her eyes. 

“He’s… yeah.” Sanji mumbles, seeing Zoro’s strong body leaning against the stone wall as he talks to Ace, his heart fluttering at the sight as if he was a fourteen year old with a crush rather than nineteen. 

“Speechless, Sanji?” She giggles, making Sanji laugh in turn. 

“Yeah, I know. It makes a change, don’t tell Zeff or he might send me to the doctors to get my head checked out.” Sanji snorts in amusement. Running his mouth has long been one of his signature traits, albeit not an especially beneficial one all of the time.

“I’m sorry for leaving you with our other cousins though, the idiot trio isn’t something I’d wish on anyone.” he apologizes. Conis’s eyes widen and she tilts her head in the direction behind Sanji’s shoulder and he casually spins her to see. Two of the three of them are coming towards him and Sanji groans, just perfect, the people he’d been trying to avoid the most.

“I owe you for bailing me out earlier, get out of here before you get dragged in too.” Sanji whispers in her ear. 

“I will miss you.” She whispers back and curtsies to him and walks quickly off, ending their dance. 

“Sanji!” The oldest brother says, flicking his long blond hair over his shoulder.

“Cavendish.” Sanji replies with as much enthusiasm as he can manage.

“Are you ignoring me now?” Absalom huffs, glaring at him from the side of his older brother.

“As if I could.” Sanji replies with a tight smile, hoping the brothers will suddenly catch fire or have a chandelier fall on them. That would be great. Absalom catches Sanji’s subtle barb and bristles in silent anger.

“How are you and your… husband doing? I’ve not met him in person yet.” Cavendish asks. His voice is pleasant and Sanji wonders if his oldest cousin is actually being pleasant. Now and then he’s able to be, instead of his usual haughty, arrogant self. 

“Very well, actually.” he answers with a genuine smile. 

If Cavendish is playing nice then Absalom won’t be a dick, his urge to piss Sanji off takes second place to impressing his brother, something that he’s never going to achieve. Cavendish thinks everyone is beneath him, including his own brothers. Sanji wonders where the youngest of the three is, Duval is annoying as shit but he actually means well, if he was here the balance might genuinely tip in the favour of reasonable conversation.

Cavendish flicks the blue plume of his hat with a sigh and looks over Sanji’s shoulder. Sanji turns to follow his gaze and sees Zoro watching him. The prince tilts his head slightly in question and Sanji just looks back to his cousins, not wanting to call the situation one way or the other just yet. If he gives Zoro any indication that he’s fine then Zoro won’t come and bother him, but right now Sanji suspects that he may need a rescue from this conversation and he’s not going to rule it out. 

“I’ve seen his knights.” Cavendish says and flicks a speck of imaginary lint off of his shoulder, preening as always.

“They look like a bunch of barbarians, except the ladies, I’d kill to have some time with them.” Absalom grins lecherously. 

Sanji snorts, he suspects strongly that if Absalom did get time alone with Robin or indeed Nami that he wouldn’t be the one doing the killing. Absalom is a known pervert with a reputation for preying on ladies, especially those he thinks are too weak to resist him. Robin could likely gut him without so much as mussing up her hair. He kind of wants him to try. 

“Well, you’re wrong.” Sanji responds. 

“Hm, even so, he’s not much on the eyes. Maybe it’s more your thing than mine but I’ve always preferred my lovers to be of the more female persuasion, the occasional feminine man maybe, but your husband certainly wouldn’t attract my fancy. Too bad for you to be married to such a man.” the older brother says lightly. Sanji’s muscles tense, oh how he would like to rearrange the man’s face. He mustn’t though, he reminds himself that silently a few times. 

“Even if he was a little easier on the eye I’m still not into fake humans. I mean look at him, you can tell from his hair that he’s not natural like we are. Someone made him, he’s not real.” Cavendish says lightly.

In the gap of furious silence on Sanji’s end Cavendish takes the opportunity and catches Sanji’s hand and peers at the waves on his wrist, turning it this way and that.

“Ugh, I see you’ve gone native now. You tattooed your own wrist, how ugly.” Cavendish remarks, still peering at Sanji’s skin. Sanji grits his teeth tightly and taps his boot on the floor and fantasizes about kicking the man’s head clean off of his shoulders. 

“It’s not a tattoo, it’s inked on. I didn’t paint it either, Zoro did and I did his, that’s how it goes. It’s a mark of respect.” Sanji answers through gritted and pulls his wrist back.

“Respect for what?” Cavendish asks, but his implication is subtle but clear. There is nothing worth respecting about Sanji as far as he’s concerned. Sanji wouldn’t be surprised if Cavendish has dear hopes that Sanji is killed before he even gets to Shimotsuki and then he can try to get Zeff off of the throne and be king himself. Not that he could with Zoro still alive, but he’s probably got a plan for that too. 

“For me, for my skills. It’s quite romantic actually. They’re very honourable people.” Sanji responds, letting the implication sink into the head of his exceedingly dishonourable cousin. Cavendish’s blue eyes flash with anger and his long lashed eyes narrow with the emotion.

“Do you need me to murder anyone?” Zoro asks in Tsukian from a few paces behind him. Sanji slides his hand behind his back and holds his hand up in a silent stop gesture. 

“Zoro, how about we take this their way and just pretend to talk to each other?” Robin suggests in Tsukian as well.

“He hates both of them, just so you know.” Usopp adds and the conversation is believably void of names and involved enough that it could appear that they’re waiting for Sanji to finish his conversation and talk to them. Cavendish looks up at them through thick dark mascara coated lashes and clearly comes to that conclusion.

“What skills?” he asks with a light laugh, flicking the blue plume on his hat again. Sanji considers the merits of making him eat that hat, the vision makes him feel a little calmer. 

“Pft, I can guess what skills he’s been using.” Absalom sneers.

“Indeed.” Cavendish chuckles.

“I mean, his father did sell him off to those barbarians for protection like a common whore!” Absalom declares. Sanji breathes in sharply and decides that enough is enough.

“What was that last word?” Zoro asks from behind him. Robin translates and Sanji hears Zoro’s furious snarl.

“My words are sharper than your sword, don’t do it.” Sanji says in neutral Tsukian, quietly proud at coming up with that sentence under pressure.

“Let him.” Usopp agrees quietly. That aside Zoro obviously gives some kind of sign because he sees Nami and Luffy skirting the wall a short distance behind the two brothers. Nami’s hand is on the slit of her dress at her thigh and Sanji is reminded of Robin’s knives.

“You know, the funny thing about learning another language is that it makes you pay attention to your own more, you know?” Sanji smiles at them, Cavendish frowns, not understanding his bizarre response and Absalom looks like he intends to repeat it because evidently Sanji didn’t get his point.

“Because, Absalom, usually when I call you a bastard I just mean it to say that you’ve annoyed me and I hate you. But we both know what it actually means. So allow me to say, you’re a bastard.” Sanji grins and delights in the way that Absalom’s eyes go wide. And Robin quietly explaining the subtleties of the word bastard to Zoro.

“You- I’ll kill you!” Absalom snarls, his fist tensing and Sanji hears several hands go to weapons.

“It’s interesting really,” Sanji continues as if he hadn’t heard him, “Because Cavendish was born in January and you were in July and, hm, counting to nine is something that I think most people can do.” 

“He was born early, I don’t like what you’re implying.” Cavendish hisses.

“I’m third in line for the throne! You can’t talk to me like this! Your father will have your ass for this, and the nobles!” Absalom snarls.

“So you do have a problem with counting! Let me demonstrate.” Sanji says brightly.

“One, two,” He counts, pointing to himself, then turning to Zoro.

“Three,” He continues, pointing at Cavendish. He gets to Absalom and pauses.

“Well, actually, bastards can have a claim to the throne if their father acknowledges them as such, if they admit it. But considering as your father never did any such thing when he was alive, that would put you at… whatever number of people currently live in this country, at the back of that number. Because, you see, I can count. You weren’t born early and the fact that apparently no one besides your parents saw you until you were a month old, well...” Sanji says darkly and feels a fire start to burn in his chest. Maybe Zoro is rubbing off on him or maybe it’s because he knows that he’s leaving soon and he doesn’t have to deal with these assholes for a while. Either way he feels something inside of him catch alight and he’s going to burn everything down with it.

“So, the only reason that you’re here is that Zeff actually liked his brother and didn’t want to piss on his memory.” He shrugs.

“Mind your tone or-” Cavendish hisses, his hand on his brother’s chest to hold him back.

“Or you’ll… what? Assuming that I couldn’t hand either of you your asses any day of the week, which I could, that’s what this is for, just so you know.” Sanji says holding his wrist up for them.

“Even without that, take a look around. The royal knights are sure paying a lot of attention to you right now, Franky just to your right over there, Patty and Carne there. Not to mention of course my husband and his knights, feel free to turn around to get a look at all of them.” Sanji grins maliciously. 

“But I don’t want that, and you don’t want that. What I want is to kick your ass myself, so go on, give me a reason.” Sanji says, begging Absalom to do or say something that will mean that Sanji gets to give him what he so sorely deserves. 

“Brother.” Cavendish says warningly as Absalom bares his teeth and his hand goes to his hip, Sanji wonders if he has a weapon there, surely he can’t but…

Absalom breathes out, right into Sanji’s face and leans back a little. Well, it’s not the victory that Sanji had wanted but he supposes that making him back down is-

“No matter what you think about my mother, at least she wasn’t some gold digging bitch. She and her sister both landed kings for husbands, not too hard to see a motive there. And at least no one hated mine enough to have her assassinated.” Absalom purrs and whatever fire Sanji had in him is snuffed out. Sanji swallows thickly, he barely remembers his mother. He remembers stories that she told him, the brightness of her eyes and her smile and the sound of her voice. Zeff never talks about her, she died in the shipwreck that stranded Sanji and his father on a rock for more time than he’d like to think about before they were rescued. That’s… that’s the story… that’s… how could she have been assassinated? 

There’s a snarl next to him and suddenly there is a sword at Absalom’s throat, steady but pressing just enough to make the shallowest of cuts. 

“Patty. Carne.” A deep voice says from behind Sanji and suddenly the two chefs are on either side of the brothers. Not a lot of people know that all of the top chefs in Zeff’s kitchen are knights. Zeff doesn’t trust anyone with his life if he doesn’t trust their skill in the kitchen, it’s just how he is. Patty and Carne aren’t the only two, other chefs are circling around, oversized forks and knives in their hands levelled at the two brothers.

“Throw them in the dungeon.” Zeff orders, his hand touching Sanji’s shoulder. Sanji realises that it was his father talking a moment ago.

Something in him snaps.

“NO!” He screeches, hurling himself in their direction. Zeff’s foot in his chest stops him but Sanji NEEDS to get to those two, to end them, he needs it as bad as breathing.

“I’m going to KILL them! I’ll rip them limb from limb I’ll-” Sanji snarls but hands come from behind him and wrap around his chest, pulling him back or at least trying to. 

“Sanji, if you want to find out what they know then you have to let them live, at least for now!” That’s… that’s Usopp’s voice in his ear. But no, he needs them dead, they need to suffer! Absalom is looking at him with fear as he’s dragged away but it’s not good enough and he needs this NOW.

“I’ve got this brat!” Zeff barks at him, shoving him back.

“Did you KNOW?!” Sanji demands, whirling on his father accusingly. 

“Whoa, hey bro, think with your head for a moment, okay?” Franky says, coming between them and blocking his view. Franky isn’t one of Zeff’s knights, not really, he’s Sanji’s. Warm overlarge hands come to Sanji’s shoulders and hold him in place.

“Sanji, I’m pissed too. Not as much as you I know that, but you have to be smart about this.”Usopp reiterates. 

Sanji snarls but stays his ground. Fine… fine he won’t kill them now. He’ll fucking find out what they know and then he’ll end their miserable lives, slowly. 

“Get him out of here.” Zeff orders and Sanji is pulled away, he goes easily enough and before he knows it he’s walking through hallways and through the door of his old room. 

“It’s gonna be okay Sanji, look at me.” Usopp says calmly and Sanji looks up at him. 

“I want to kill them.” Sanji says firmly. 

“Trust me, I don’t think they’re going to live much longer, at least not Absalom.” Franky says from his position leaning against the door. 

Sanji’s fingers tense against his bedsheets and he feels his whole body shaking. How can this be? Who could possibly have wanted his mother dead? She was wonderful, and it’s just coincidence that his aunt is the queen of Alabaster. What Absalom said was a lie. But… but she is dead, was someone really behind that? He’d always just put it down to a freak storm and a tragic accident. Surely no one could have staged that, not unless they deliberately screwed up the steering of the ship to make it sink and sailed into a storm that they knew would be there. Shit…

“Do you think that he did it?” Sanji asks in a numb voice.

“Who? Absalom? He was eleven at the time, I don’t think so.” Usopp points out. 

“I meant his father.” Sanji clarifies, staring down at his boots.

“Who knows? Just because Absalom knew about it doesn’t mean his father did it, and just because he said it doesn’t make it true either. He could just be making something up to hurt you Sanji.” Franky adds. 

“Why would he say that? He had to know that it’d land him in the dungeon. Even if it’s not true Zeff’s gonna have him executed for sure.” Sanji frowns. 

“Because he’s not very smart and he wanted to hurt you.” Usopp says disdainfully.

Sanji’s shoulders slump and hopelessness utterly overwhelms him, there’s nothing that he can do in this situation either so he feels just as helpless as he does hopeless. He falls onto his side on his old bed, the mattress giving under him a little as he does so. 

“I want to be by myself, I might sleep or something. Maybe.” Sanji mutters, shoving himself further up the bed and curling in on himself. There’s a pause and Sanji wonders if Usopp is going to say anything to him, if he’s going to try to tell him that it’s not a big deal of that he should calm down, that his reaction is overblown. Is that part of his job now that they’re nakama? If he does that Sanji might just kick his head off. 

“I’ll be outside if you need anything. Food, water, or… if you wanna talk. I’ll chase people off if they try to get in here if you want to be alone.” Usopp says instead. 

Sanji sniffs and screws his eyes shut. Everything is so overwhelming and he doesn’t know if he wants to cry or kick the shit out of everything. Maybe both.

“Well, actually I’ll probably get Franky to do the chasing off, he’s big enough that people will listen.” Usopp amends.

“You can count on me!” Franky says loudly and despite himself Sanji smiles a little, just a small quirk at the edge of his mouth but it’s there.

“Thanks Usopp. Thanks Franky.” Sanji mumbles and curls up a little tighter on the bed. He feels it shift a little as Usopp gets up and then the door clicks as they leave.


	14. Chapter 14

Zoro hadn’t expected the King to summon him. He had been halfway to Sanji’s room when one of the knights that Zoro hadn’t known were knights catches up to him and tells him. 

Zoro has Robin at his tail on their way to what probably is Baratie’s excuse for a war room. There’s a large table in the centre with a map of the continent and considerably more of the ocean than Zoro is used to seeing on maps. There are even topographical lines on the ocean indicating depth of the waters and hidden rocky spires. He’s leaning over the table, fists balled up and the knuckles pressed into the paper preserved under the glass table top. 

“Your highness?” Zoro asks. He realises that his voice was perhaps a little too strong for that. In Baratie being tactful and gentle is emphasised, but in Shimotsuki being firm and sounding sure is what’s best in these situations. He’s learnt the difference from Sanji but then again Sanji isn’t so great at being polite all of the time either and Zeff is his father.

“What?” The King asks, his voice gruff. 

“If you need me or my people for… for anything. Let me know.” Zoro says, trying to keep his tone more neutral. 

Zeff heaves out an empty sounding sigh and for a moment Zoro considers leaving. He’s actually turning away when Zeff speaks.

“Does Sanji ever talk about-” Zeff cuts out. Zoro pauses, he doesn’t know if he means Sanji’s mother or specifically her death. Either way the answer is the same. 

“Not to me.” Zoro says with a shake of his head. 

Zeff’s fingers drum on the glass top of the table and Zoro hesitates before walking slowly closer to Zeff’s side, but not too close for comfort. As it happens he’s standing right near the side of the map closest to his homeland. He looks down at it. The map is detailed, showing the location of the cities, of his father’s castle. He follows the two rivers that run around Amazon Lilly with his eyes, he sees how they form into the turbulent waters of the Orange Union. He mentally traces the route that he took to get here and knows that he will be following it back soon, but with this revelation about Sanji’s mother, their trip may well be delayed. 

“We were here.” Zeff says, his finger tapping on the map. 

Zoro looks where the King is indicating. The spot is in the territorial waters of Baratie, near a small chain of islands to the north east. He can’t read their names because of the stupid Baratian script that Zoro still can’t make heads or tails of. 

“The ship sank in a storm. But if Absalom is right…” Zeff says and Zoro hears the way his voice goes into that tight hiss despite his tone being calm, he sees the set of his shoulders tighten in the same way that Sanji’s does when he’s really angry. 

“Robin is very good at finding things out, if you need-” Zoro offers.

“I would be happy to talk to him for you.” Robin confirms, stressing the word ‘talk’ slightly. Robin has a way of talking to people that make Zoro exceedingly glad that Robin is his nakama and not his enemy. She doesn’t torture people, though she’s not averse to causing a little harm, but she is so smart and so intimidating that she can rip the words out of someone and beat them with them until they tell her the truth. 

Zoro gets the nice version of it now and then, where she makes him tell her things because she cares. Often she doesn’t even have to do that with him. She knows enough to read his mind from who the fuck knows what, the slight raise of his eyebrows or the way his head is tilted or something else entirely inane. Between her and Nami he’s lucky to have any privacy at all. 

“No. That won’t happen.” Zeff growls and that’s the sort of thing where Sanji would usually tell him that he’s got the wrong tone, but this is deliberate with Zeff.

“My wife, my country, my nephew.” The old man grits out. Zoro nods, it’s best not to say anything here.

The King makes a frustrated sound in his chest and turns to Zoro, his eyes narrow and his moustache twitching. Zoro can’t help but wonder why he was summoned then, if Zeff doesn’t want his help then why is he here? It’s not as if he’s seen Sanji since, he can’t give the man information about how his husband is reacting to the news. If Zeff intends to order him to control Sanji then Zoro will laugh in his face. Aside from the fact that he doubts that anyone in the world could completely control that man it’s not his job to do that. He’s Sanji’s husband and he’s in… whatever it is with him. His job is to protect Sanji and have his back, not to get in his way. If he needs to alter Sanji’s course of action to protect his life then he will, but he’s not going to get in the way of Sanji expressing his emotions, he won’t make Sanji lie. 

“I need you to leave in the morning with Sanji and your knights. Take him with you.” Zeff orders, his eyes hard. 

“I’ll talk to Sanji.” Zoro says. He will talk to Sanji, he’ll see what Sanji wants to do and they’ll do just that. 

“He can’t be here. I need to know if there’s any- he’s got too short- need him to go.” Zeff growls and with that and the longer words Zoro can’t get all of what he’s saying.

“Robin?” Zoro asks, looking at her.

“He said that he needs to know if there’s anything to what Absalom said and that Sanji is too irresponsible and too quick to anger and lashing out to be helpful. He’s basically saying that having Sanji around would be counterproductive and so he wants him gone.” Robin explains. Zoro grits his teeth in irritation. He doesn’t want to hear anyone saying bad things about Sanji, even if the man does lose his cool fast, Sanji isn’t stupid.

“Ask him just what the hell he wants me to do about it.” Zoro says, careful not to snap, to keep his tone something close to level but it’s hard and he’s sure that he fails at it because Zeff’s look sours. 

“Zoro wants to know what exactly your plan is and what it is- that you want him to do- Sanji and your request to leave. He wants-” Zoro isn’t getting every word, but Robin is being more eloquent than him and right now that’s what he needs. 

“Why doesn’t he just say that his goddamn self?” Zeff snaps at her and Robin narrows her eyes slightly in displeasure. 

“Don’t speak to her like that!” Zoro barks, and regrets it immediately from the way Zeff’s angry stare turns at him. 

“I will speak to Sanji.” Zoro says in a calmer tone.

“This is important, you were going to leave anyway, just leave tomorrow. How hard is that?” the older man says in a stern voice. 

“It’s important to Sanji. I’ll talk to him and do what he wants, not you.” Zoro argues back.

Zeff glares at him, his eyes hot and furious. Zoro stares back at him, unblinking. Zeff is a tough man and Zoro respects that, frankly he wants Zeff’s approval and wants the King to like him, but he is not in a position to order him to do anything. He’s not going to break on this, Zoro has stared down far more intimidating people than Zeff. Zoro’s own father has a stare that makes his skin crawl if he tries to outstare him, compared to that anyone else is easy. 

Zeff breaks off with a growl and his posture alters a little, like Sanji does when he’s weighing up the opportunity to kick someone in the face. Sanji doesn’t do it frequently though, it’s probably a subconscious thing, his body making him ready if he does make the decision to attack. He should probably try to work out just when he got such a good read on Sanji’s body language but considering that for a long time most of their communication has been through that it’s not surprising that he can read him so well. 

“I’ll speak to Sanji.” Zoro repeats finally.

“Your highness.” Zoro nods slightly and walks away, Robin at his back. 

He picks a direction and walks off, not caring if it’s the right way to Sanji. For now he just needs to be away from the King. He’s still furious at Zeff’s order, both because he has no intention of telling Sanji what he should do in a situation this personal and complicated but also at Zeff’s assumption that he can tell him what to do. He is Sanji’s husband and Shimotsuki is allied with Baratie, that does not mean that Zeff gets to give him orders. He’s happy to do what the King wants if it’s reasonable or if Zoro agrees, but in this situation it isn’t and he doesn’t. 

“You aren’t wrong, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Robin says, interrupting Zoro’s thoughts. 

He pauses and looks around, no one else is in this corridor but he peers inside the nearest room and upon finding it empty he goes inside with Robin. 

“I thought that you would tell me I should have been more ‘diplomatic’ or something like that.” Zoro grumbles, glaring at the wall.

“Perhaps you could have been, but it would have been dishonest in this case.” Robin shrugs and Zoro relaxes a little. 

“You could have avoided scolding him for snapping at me. I can handle myself, remember?” Robin adds, raising an eyebrow at him.

“I know that. You could probably kill him.” Zoro sighs. He considers that point though, he knows that Zeff uses the same fighting style as Sanji from the way he handled himself so it’s likely that it was him who taught Sanji how to fight. If that’s the case then perhaps Robin might be outmatched in the same way that she is with Zoro’s own father. 

“Maybe.” He amends even as he looks at the inked roses on her arms. Robin’s mouth twitches into a smile at the edge, clearly amused.

“The point is that he had no right to speak to you like that.” he reasons.

“I appreciate that. Come on, let’s go find Sanji. I believe that you mentioned that you would talk to him. Maybe just the once though.” She says with a smile.

“Shut up.” he groans and opens the door. With a swish of purple dress and black hair Robin walks out before him and leads the way, he sighs despairingly and follows her. 

“Actually…” He says after a few minutes of walking. Robin pauses and looks back to him.

“We’d better go see Nami first. There’s no point in asking Sanji if he’s okay with leaving tomorrow if we can’t actually do it, is there?” Zoro reasons.

“I hadn’t thought of that. Okay, this way.” Robin nods and turns back the way they came and then takes a left… or was it a right?

When they get back to the knight’s quarters and shared room most of them are lurking around there. Evidently Sanji’s threat to murder his cousin and Zeff’s arresting of him and his brother presumably for future execution kind of broke up the party. 

Luffy is sprawled on the sofa, having instantly got out of his formal attire and is now back into his well worn blue shirts with his red vest on. Luffy is the only one of them who hasn’t adjusted their clothes from being in Baratie. He guesses that maybe rubber doesn’t get cold that easily. 

“Oh, ick. Incoming.” Nami grimaces, looking out of the window. 

“That’s not nice!” Luffy snickers.

“I didn’t mean him.” Nami sighs, rubbing her nose and turning to face him. 

“So, are we going to see how they execute people in Baratie then?” Nami asks him.

“Treason’s gotta carry a pretty nasty one for sure.” Ace says thoughtfully and bites into a chicken leg that Zoro swears that he saw going around on plates near dinner. There’s another full plate by Luffy. Either they sweet talked one of the chefs or they stole it. Seeing as almost the totality of the kitchen staff are apparently knights that’s a pretty dumb idea. 

“In Baratie the execution is standard regardless of crime, it’s hanging. Very few crimes carry it from my understanding. Cold blooded murder does, but self defence or killing with a good cause doesn’t. Treason obviously does. Interestingly so does stealing food if it causes other people to considerably suffer, cases in which stealing food results in death or starvation for the rightful owners is always a hanging offence. It’s fascinating really.” Robin informs them all with interest. 

Zoro shakes his head, he should have expected Robin to know that sort of thing. It’s almost surprising that she hadn’t shared that information with him before now. 

“I wanted to know if it would be possible for all of us to leave tomorrow morning, Sanji and his knights too.” Zoro asks. 

“Well, we can leave at any time. Whether your husband and his people can pack their most needed things is another matter. You’d also have to set whatever you wanted to take back and whatever Sanji wants to take with him but doesn’t need on the journey aside and leave instructions for the others to take it when they get here.” She explains and wrinkles her nose in distaste. 

Suddenly thunder booms outside and the weather goes from slightly chilly to thundering downpour. Aside from the fact that Baratie is colder than his homeland Zoro hates the fact that the weather changes every five minutes, or it feels like it at any rate. 

“Thank goodness for that.” Nami mumbles and rubs on either side on her nose. She’s always been especially sensitive to weather pressure and occasionally it bothers her instead of just informing her. 

“Why would we have to leave it?” Zoro frowns. 

“What? We-” Luffy starts, leaning up on his elbows to look at Zoro.

“No, no. Don’t tell him, I want to hear this. Didn’t you go to see the horses and our supplies Zoro?” Nami asks him, coming closer to him, her hips swaying with the movement. 

“I… got distracted. I found Sanji’s old room though.” Zoro says, staring at a spot on the wall two inches to the left of Nami’s head, maybe she’ll think that’s eye contact and leave it at that.

“You mean that you got lost.” Nami purrs, getting close to him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. 

This is the difference between friends and nakama. Nakama understand everything about how each other work and have zero intention of ever pulling their punches. Zoro knows that Nami cares for him deeply, if she didn’t she wouldn’t make his life hell so often. Zoro would defend her to the death and cares for her deeply, he also regularly wants to strangle her. 

“But we can leave tomorrow if we need to.” Zoro says, ignoring her. 

“Sure. What’s the hurry though?” Nami asks, leaning back a little and looking from him to Robin and back. 

“It could be nothing, I just needed to know. I’ll tell you if we need to go.” Zoro nods, pulling away from her and heading to the door.

“Zoro,” Nami calls out and Zoro halts in his tracks to look at her, “this rain is going to keep up all of tomorrow and until at least midday the next day. The route that we took here isn’t passable in the rain. Just… bear that in mind.” 

Zoro nods and leaves, Robin still with him. He knows now that they can leave if that’s what Sanji wants, so now it’s up to Sanji when he gets there. He and Robin walk in silence to the area that he and Sanji have been living in, but Sanji isn’t there and no one else is either. 

“Shit, he must be in his old room.” Zoro curses, he goes back out of the door but in all honesty even he can admit that he has no idea how he can get there.

“Did you have to go upstairs to get to it?” Robin asks, coming out of the room and shutting the door. She has clearly came to the same conclusion that he had.

“Yes. And… I could see the sea from the window, the room was wood but the hallway was only in parts.” Zoro frowns, that’s about all of the information that he can give her. 

“Well, let’s go exploring then.” Robin smiles brightly and she heads off. 

Twenty minutes of wandering and deductions on Robin’s part leads them to a corridor that Zoro isn’t sure looks familiar, but Usopp and Franky are standing outside of the door so Zoro would bet that Sanji is in that room. 

Franky spots them first and nudges Usopp in the arm. The translator had been staring off at the wall in front of him and as Zoro gets closer he can see that Usopp’s face is pinched into a frown. 

“I need to see Sanji.” Zoro announces as he walks up to the room. 

Usopp looks at them and swallows thickly then shakes his head.

“Sanji wants to be on his own.” Usopp says.

“That’s why we’re standing outside.” Franky points out in a slightly amused tone.

“I’m not surprised, but I need to talk to him.” Zoro sighs and steps towards the door. To his shock Usopp steps between him and the door. He can see the man shaking a little as he does so. He tilts his jaw slightly upwards at Zoro and looks him in the eyes.

“I- I can’t let you in. Sanji wants to be on his own and- and I’m his nakama so- so I’ll stop you if I have to.” Usopp says unsteadily. Usopp is sweating anxiously and this is clearly taking a lot for him to do.

“He is? You asked him?” Robin asks brightly and Usopp looks at her with a red flush creeping up the back of his neck. 

“He… asked me actually.” Usopp says slightly bashfully. Robin’s face lights up and she smiles widely. Zoro suspects that there had been some conversation between the two of them on that subject before and in part Zoro is pleased that Sanji seems to be getting the hang of the idea. 

“I… didn’t understand much of that.” Franky admits and Zoro realises that they’d inadvertently held that entire conversation in Tsukian, leaving Franky out of it. 

“Sorry about that.” Zoro apologizes in Baratian. He hates when Robin and Usopp talk in one of their other languages and he loathed it when he could barely understand Baratian and people talked in it around him. 

“I still need to see him though.” Zoro repeats this time in Baratian and looks back to Usopp.

“I think it would be better for Sanji if we let them talk.” Franky reasons to Usopp. Zoro groans internally, does Sanji have more unclaimed nakama around the place or does everyone in the goddamned country flirt with each other without knowing it? 

“It’s still not what Sanji said.” Usopp replies and tries to stare Zoro down. As if that’s going to work at all. 

“So, you’re going to make me fight you then?” Zoro asks, tilting his head curiously. He had seen the warrior hidden in Usopp before, the potential there covered up by nervousness and disuse in Baratie, but perhaps it’s starting to shine now. Though it has to be said that Usopp looks a little like the idea is going to make him throw up, but it’s a step in the right direction at least. 

The door behind Usopp swings open and Usopp nearly falls through it because he’d backed up so much. Sanji glares out at him and Zoro can see that his eyes are red and his hair is messed up. 

“No one is fighting anyone.” Sanji asserts and Usopp sags in relief. 

“Oh, you heard us then.” Zoro notes. Sanji gives him a withering glare and blows some of the hair out of his usually visible eye. 

“Add volume to the list of things that you’re incapable of controlling. I’m sure everyone in the fucking corridor heard you.” Sanji snaps. 

“Whatever. You look like shit by the way.” Zoro points out, and really he does. Sanji usually is very pretty most of the time, even if Sanji might try to force feed Zoro one of his fancy white boots if he heard him say it. Right now though he looks like a wreck. 

“Fuck you.” Sanji snarls in Tsukian and Zoro grins brightly. 

“Can I come in?” He asks. Sanji groans but steps aside, waving a hand into the room inviting him in. Zoro steps around Usopp’s form slumped against the door frame and walks in. Sanji shuts the door after him, leaving both of their nakama and Franky outside. 

“Come to make me feel better then?” Sanji asks bitterly, his tone coming out acerbic and barbed in his Baratian. 

“My parents are both alive.” Zoro says simply. 

“WELL FUCKING GOOD FOR YOU!” Sanji screams at him, his fists balled at his sides and Zoro genuinely thinks that Sanji might kick him. 

“I have no idea how you feel!” He yells back at him.

“I can’t tell you shit because I don’t know anything! How can I make you feel better from something I can’t possibly understand?!” He shouts and that seems to tip Sanji off balance. The blonde screws his eyes shut and Zoro thinks that Sanji might actually cry. He’s never seen the other prince cry but in this kind of situation he can hardly hold it against him. He really doesn’t have any idea how Sanji must actually feel and he certainly can’t tell Sanji to change his feelings because it’s uncomfortable for Zoro to be around and making Sanji hide how he feels would be lying to the highest degree.

“Everyone else is telling me that we’re gonna find out what happened, like that will make her less dead.” He says bitterly. 

“I’m an ungrateful shit because that should make me feel better and they’re trying to help but-” Sanji says guiltily and presses the heels of his hands into his eyes, trying to stop himself from crying again. He clearly has done already if the way his face looks is any indication. He’s trashed a fair amount of his room too. Zeff might be right about Sanji being hot tempered but Zoro can’t see that as a bad thing, at least Sanji is honest with himself about how he feels. Plenty of people aren’t.

Zoro frowns to himself, he has no idea what he’d feel like if either of his parents died, much less if someone had killed them on purpose in some disgusting underhanded way like that. It’d be one thing if either of them died in battle or simply in an accident, but to have someone plot your death and kill you through dishonesty is so much worse. There are people who do that kind of thing, even in Shimotsuki. Just because his culture despises that sort of behaviour doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who do it anyway. Between having never lost a parent and Sanji’s culture being so vastly different all he can do is guess at what Sanji must be feeling and thinking. All he can tell is that it hurts him. 

“If you’re not here to try to make me feel better then what do you want?” Sanji asks, looking off to the side with his arms folded across his chest. 

“I wanted to talk to you.” Zoro shrugs and realizes that Robin is right, he has said that far too much today.

“So talk.” Sanji sighs and runs his hands through his hair. His fingers get tangled in the chains of his crown and he curses, trying to untangle himself. Zoro moves behind him and starts unwrapping Sanji and freeing his fingers. He unweaves the strands of silver from Sanji’s golden hair in silence, it gives him something to do with his hands.

“The King summoned me. Yours, not mine I mean.” He clarifies, because from what he’s going to say next it might not be clear. 

“And what did he want?” Sanji asks unhappily, apparently somewhat bitter at being held back from kicking the information that he wants out of Absalom. 

“He told me that you were too hot tempered to be around right now, that you’d fuck up him trying to get information out of Absalom. He wants me to take you back to Shimotsuki as soon as I can, tomorrow morning.” Zoro explains and frees Sanji from his crown, stepping back with it in his hands. 

“So you’re what, here to tell me what to do and shove me in some carriage to pack away or something?!” Sanji snaps, his eyes ablaze. 

“No. I told him that I don’t take orders from him.” Zoro replies flatly and the fire goes out of Sanji, leaving the blonde just staring at Zoro in a kind of numb shock. 

Zoro frowns and looks at the crown in his hand. It’s all delicate chains and small stones, there’s a larger one that sits right in the centre of Sanji’s forehead and he knows that if he put it on it would line up just right with the marks on his own forehead. There are diamonds in this thing though, small ones in the chains but there nonetheless. Zoro could break apart this crown with a bit of effort, he could make the silver bend and come apart, but the diamonds in it… nothing could break them. Sanji is the same. Some bits of him are strong but ultimately breakable, the same as everyone else, but there are parts of him that are harder and tougher than anything else. 

“Why would you say that?” Sanji asks, sounding shocked. 

“Because I don’t take orders from him, I said the truth.” Zoro shrugs and pours the delicate chains and stones of Sanji’s crown back into the other man’s hands.

“If you want to leave for any reason, even if it’s not what your father said, then we’ll leave. I can help you pack what you need and what you want sent there afterwards and we can go first thing in the morning. We don’t even have to see Zeff before we go if you don’t want to.” Zoro offers. Sanji’s eyes widen and his lips part a little, like he has something to say but doesn’t know quite what.

“If you want to stay, we’ll stay. I don’t care what your father says. If you want to stay here he’ll have to get past me, my knights and yours too mostly likely if he wants to make you go. He’d have to pack up our things for us and physically throw us over the border and even then Nami would find us a way back in. If you want to stay then we’re not fucking leaving.” He says with a defiant snap to his voice that probably distorts the fuck out his his Baratian but he doesn’t care, Sanji knows him well enough now to know what he means and that’s the important thing right now. 

Sanji stands stock still, his hands still in front of him with his crown pooled in his palms. His eyes are wide, so wide that he can see all of the blue in Sanji’s iris in his exposed eye. It would be almost funny if it wasn’t so serious. 

“You’d… you’d do that? Even though Zeff told you to get rid of me?” Sanji asks in a voice that has a slight shake to it. Sanji’s skin is paler than usual, which says something.

“No, I said it for fun. Do you think I’d lie to you about this?” Zoro snaps irritably. 

“No! No, that’s… that’s not what I mean. It’s just that you’d go against Zeff for me.” Sanji says thickly and drops his crown on the edge of his bed. He turns back to Zoro and stares at him some more. Why is this such a difficult idea for Sanji to get? Maybe his brain is just scrambled from all of the bad news.

“I don’t take orders from him, why do I have to keep repeating myself?” He grumbles irritably. This is starting to get tiresome. 

“But you take orders from me then?” Sanji grins, tilting his head and though his face still shows signs of his earlier distress right now he looks like the cocky and smug Sanji that Zoro is used to seeing. 

“I will kick your ass, fucker.” Zoro threatens with a glare. Not that he’s willing to admit, and certainly not to Sanji, that having the other man argue with him makes Zoro feel better about this. Despite all that Sanji’s been through he’s still got those unbreakable parts, apparently being an asshole to people is one of them. 

“My old man is the King though.” Sanji points out, walking back towards Zoro empty handed this time. 

“No shit, I had worked that out, Prince Sanji.” Zoro drawls, his tone dripping with sarcasm. Hell, does he even need to be in this conversation right now? All Sanji is doing is repeating him or stating the fucking obvious. 

“That level of ‘fuck you’ to him though, that’s a pretty big deal.” the other man says, again repeating the obvious. 

“I’m married to you, you idiot. This is what you do.” Zoro groans, pressing his palms to his forehead. Sanji is so goddamn dumb sometimes that it hurts.

“Even if I wasn’t I-” Zoro cuts himself off and glances over his shoulder to the door in the wall behind him. He wonders how many ears are pressed against it or even if Robin has one of her own in here thanks to her Devil’s Fruit power. Fuck it, she already knows and if the others don’t then they’re going to work it out sooner or later. 

“Even if I wasn’t married to you, at the very least I love you. Even if it could be more than…” Zoro decides not to keep going down that path, this conversation is complicated enough as it is. 

“Fighting for you is what I’m supposed to do, even against a King. I’m not taking orders from you, you moron, I’m doing what you decide is best for you. I’m supposed to and it’s... what I want to do.” He mutters, looking away and feeling his own cheeks heat up. He’s probably redder than Usopp was. 

He should probably know better than to take his eyes off of Sanji because before he knows it he’s slammed against the wall behind him with the other man kissing him as hard as he can. One hand is pinning Zoro’s shoulder to the wall and the other is in his hair, pulling him to just where Sanji wants him. Zoro puts his hands on Sanji’s hips, his skin covered with pretty but combat useless clothes, he puts his hands there and with some reluctance he tries to push his reckless husband back. He opens his mouth to speak but Sanji just pushes closer to him again and licks his way into Zoro’s mouth.

Zoro considers himself to be a strong man, a man of conviction. With that said he probably shouldn’t frantically kiss Sanji back for a good minute or so. But, he needs to know what Sanji wants and then he needs to do it. If they’re leaving then he has a hell of a lot of things to do, if he’s staying then he needs to work out what to tell the King in a way that expresses that Sanji is staying no matter what and there’s fuck all Zeff can do about it. These are important things. It takes him another half a minute to work himself into pushing Sanji away again.

This time he manages to gasp out Sanji’s name, to try to point out all these reasonable things to him. Sanji ignores that and leans in and bites Zoro’s lip. He… he bites him and Zoro is sure that his whole body reacts, he jolts like he’s been struck by lightning. Sanji bit him and, oh fuck, he’s bitten him hard. Zoro wants Sanji so fucking badly. He wants to grab Sanji up, throw him on that bed and pull him out of those stupid fucking clothes and just-

Shit no, Sanji bit him so he clearly wants it too, but they don’t have time for this. He puts Sanji at arms length from him and screws his eyes up so that he doesn’t see Sanji looking kiss drunk and pleading with him to do what he just asked. 

“Stay in Baratie or leave in the morning? Tell me.” Zoro manages to say between heaving breaths. Sanji’s hands come up and wrap around Zoro’s wrists. One of them is shaking slightly and he doesn’t know if it’s him or Sanji. Zoro opens his eyes and looks at Sanji cautiously, Sanji’s head is hanging down and all he can see of Sanji is his blond hair.

“I- I’m not sure that I can stay here if that old man is going to talk about me like that, even if I am seriously considering kicking the life out of my cousin. We’ll go.” Sanji says with a nod.

“Okay… okay. I’ll, I’ll go tell Nami. We’ll go at first light. And… pack for rain.” Zoro says, somewhat impressed with himself for gathering the brainpower to think of all of that when most of him is still focused on the idea of Sanji and bed.

He slides out of Sanji’s grip and to the door. He opens it, lets himself out and then shuts it behind him, pausing to lean against it with weak knees. 

“Zoro, your lip!” Robin gasps, her eyes showing a level of shock that Robin does not often show. Zoro raises a hand and rubs it over his lip and when he looks at it there is the slightest smear of blood there. Sanji didn’t bite him hard enough to split it but enough to… Zoro debates turning right around and going back in there. 

“Don’t. I have… I have things to do. Sanji wants to leave in the morning.” he manages to say, screwing his eyes shut and thinking of the things that he needs to pack and the things that he doesn’t. His bedding can stay here and no, thinking about his bed after that is not a smart thing to think when he could have Sanji on that- no. He should find something else to think of then.

“But he bit you.” Robin says incredulously. 

“Shit, I don’t think he gets what that means.” Usopp says wide eyed. 

“Me neither, what does it mean?” Franky says, leaning over and peering at Zoro. 

Zoro sucks his bottom lip into his mouth and a slight coppery tang blooms on the tip of his tongue and he can feel where Sanji’s tooth snagged him slightly. His whole body is repeating a litany of ‘Sanji, Sanji, Sanji, Sanji’ and yes he’s wanted this for a long time but he doesn’t have time and if Usopp is right and Sanji doesn’t get it. 

“I’m going to go talk to Nami about… the weather. And maybe stare at a wall for a while.” He manages to say and picks a direction and walks. If the corridors keep up their habit of moving then it will be easier to resist, he knows that he won’t be able to find his way back to Sanji in this maze and then he can focus. 

He tongues at the small cut in his lip again and shivers all over. Goddamnit.


	15. Chapter 15

Sanji has a chest open at his feet and two bags open on the bed at his side. He shouldn’t pack everything that he owns after all, he’ll still be living here for half a year every year, or close enough at least. It’s supposed to be a month travel time each way, which leaves five months in Baratie and five months in Shimotsuki.

This… this is how the rest of his life is going to be. He’s going to spend spring and summer in his home country and autumn and winter in Zoro’s. Okay, it doesn’t perfectly line up like that because he will still be at Zoro’s for the end of summer and back here for part of winter, but the plan is the same. He’ll be at Zoro’s side wherever he is, travelling through countries with him and maybe exploring the world.

He smiles, hiding it behind the shirt in his hand in a kind of mute embarrassment at being so sentimental, even though no one is there to see it. Zoro had defied his father for him. It’s not that Zeff is some kind of tyrant and Sanji frequently refuses to do things that he says but, no one else has ever, ever, stood up to Zeff for him, let alone so absolutely. The most anyone has done was Patty and Carne would make a comment to Zeff not to be quite so hard on Sanji, but that was when he was about eight at most.

It’s not like Sanji needs defending, he doesn’t need anyone’s help but Zoro wasn’t doing it for that. He wasn’t doing it because he thought that Sanji couldn’t stand up to Zeff on his own or that he was some delicate thing who needed shielding from the world. The way that Zoro put it was that he would always have Sanji’s back whenever he had to, no matter who it was against. That kind of thoughtless dedication and risk… it was enough to send Sanji’s heart into overdrive. Then Zoro had completely admitted that he is in love with him.

They had skirted around it before, saying that certain things that they were doing you’d usually be in love to do, if not knowing someone and then doing those things. They’d admitted that what they felt didn’t fit into any category that Tsukians have. They had been physical with each other, though despite the intimacy of it their actions weren’t anything technically impressive. It didn’t feel that way though.

But Zoro actually saying that he was in love with him. Oh, that was incredible.

He’s acting like a fourteen year old with a crush and sure he doesn’t have any experience at all with this sort of thing but he’d expected at his age for him to be a bit cooler and more mature about it. Evidently that isn’t the case. He thinks that Zoro is affected as much, but sometimes the other man can be so hard to read. A few hours ago he had been pushing Zoro so much that he wouldn’t have been surprised if they had ended up in bed with each other, one way or another. But Zoro was able to just walk out on him.

Maybe it’s a culture thing.

Fucking culture.

Well, not literally, but that too he supposes.

He sighs and focuses again on what he’s supposed to be doing. Is Shimotsuki hot even in winter? Baratie is isolated from the more extreme weather with the warmth of the ocean disrupting any really long periods of any either, but even so they were at the northernmost tip of the continent. The other countries on the other side of the western mountains were covered in snow and ice. Shimotsuki by comparison was much further south and far warmer if Zoro’s bitching was to be believed. But in winter what was it like? Shit, he can ask Usopp when the man shows up again. Surely he won’t need his winter coat right away.

He looks at the shirt in his hands instead. He can’t pack for every day of the journey so he needs things that he can wash by hand and not ruin, which put most of his silk and wool items out of the picture. This shirt however is a fine quality cotton with long sleeves and buttons up to the neck, it’s in shades of blue with waves on it so it still looks attractive despite it’s more practical nature. He folds it and puts that in his pack.

Okay, next thing. His eyes fall on his winter coat again and he groans. If they ARE going the sensible route then they’ll be going north, across the water into Drum Kingdom, across into Karakuri and then south to Shimotsuki which means that he will need his winter coat. How the fuck can he pack that without wasting an entire bag on that alone? Well, surely he can stuff it in the carriage, even if it has to be smushed under a seat or something, that’s no big deal. He picks out a lighter shirt, he’ll need it when they’re travelling through Shimotsuki before they get to Zoro’s home.

He shoves the shirt in his bag and then puts his knives and basic cooking equipment on top of it, like hell is he going to be caught without those. He compulsively unrolls it and checks it again. Fishing wire and hook, skinning knife, paring knife, cleaver, fish knife, string, scissors and his smallish sharpening stone so if one of his knives for some reason blunts he won’t be totally fucked. Under those he’s got small vials of basic herbs. You can do a lot with food if you season it right, it can make even the sparsest meal feel better. They’re going to take food with them of course but there’s no way that they can pack for the entire journey, which means either hunting or trapping overnight or buying supplies as they go. Whichever it is Sanji will not be caught without food, never again.

He places a pair of thicker trousers on top, if it’s too hot he can wear a thinner shirt or forgo one altogether if he must but it means that in his main pack he can have just two, one for wearing and one for storage and switch them around when he needs to. Most of this will of course be on top of the carriage, but he can’t take everything with them in one go. When Zoro arrived he came a good day or two before the majority of his stuff arrived, so he can leave most of his things in the large chest behind him.

So, gloves. Shit, he needs Usopp’s advice here. At least Usopp has been to the fucking place, even if he was a kid at the time. He should remember something at least from personal experience, even if the rest is second hand knowledge it’s still more than Sanji has. But surely he can do at least some of this himself without-

“Sanji?” Usopp calls, making Sanji jump in surprise.

“Shit, you startled me!” Sanji curses, his heart hammering in his chest as he looks at his equally surprised friend. Wait, nakama. That’ll take a while to change the word in his head.

“Since when can I sneak up on you that easily?” Usopp asks, tilting his head curiously.

“I don’t know, I was just focused on packing I guess.” He says with a shake of his head and a gesture to his bags.

Usopp frowns a little and peers into the chest and the bags, poking around a bit to see what’s in them.

“I’m trying to work out what I need to take with me for the journey and what I can just have sent behind me, I mean some of the stuff can go in the carriage, right? Robin just passed me two bags and vanished again but surely-” Sanji explains but Usopp cuts him off with a raise of his hand.

“There isn’t a carriage Sanji, it’s all on horseback.” Usopp explains and Sanji’s eyes widen. He’s never ridden that far on horseback before! Sure he knows how to ride and he’ll go as far as he’s allowed, but after a certain point it just makes sense to take the train. The horses go in their own special train carriage and are ridden at either end of the journey, but doing the whole trip to Shimotsuki on horseback alone?

“That’s so exciting!” Sanji grins widely. Some things about Shimotsuki are really starting to grow on him. It’s not that his father kept him pampered or anything, but there are things that nobes and citizens expect of a prince. Though he can subvert some of the expectations of him and be unconventional he can’t do that with absolutely anything, so he has to make concessions sometimes.

“Tell me that after a week of horse riding.” Usopp mutters, sounding significantly less enthused. Usopp never liked riding as much as Sanji did.

Sanji peers at his bags as well. If Usopp is right, and he can’t think of any reason why he wouldn’t be, then he needs to slim down what he’s packing.

“What about the coat? We’re going through Drum, right?” Sanji frowns.

“I think so? But Nami apparently has some secret route so who knows. Robin and Zoro say that she’s the best navigator in the world so who knows what she has planned. Better to take a coat and not need it than not take it and need it I guess.” Usopp admits, picking up Sanji’s coat and feeling it.

“Have you packed one?” Sanji asks, flicking through the rest of his wardrobe in dismay. What on earth can he take that can be that flexible.

“Yeah, I’m gonna tie mine up behind the saddle, you can probably do the same.” Usopp says. Sanji nods, Usopp can be really practical sometimes.

Sanji packs a few more things up and drops them into the chest as Usopp rifles through Sanji’s bag, plucking a few things out and rearranging things. He can’t help but notice that most of the things Usopp is pulling out are light coloured.

“What’s wrong with this? Because it’s white?” Sanji asks sourly, remembering Kaku’s agitation at him which Sanji has put down as an overblown reaction to his wardrobe. It couldn’t have been anything else aside from that and his nationality, the man hadn’t known him enough to take offence to anything else about him.

“Yeah, you’re gonna have to wash it on the way and it’ll look like shit within a week. Unless you want that?” Usopp points out.

“Yeah, yeah, stop looking so smug.” Sanji mutters and throws the shirt in Usopp’s grinning face.

He turns to his wardrobe again with a huff and stares in it hopelessly. What the fuck is he supposed to pack?

“I don’t even know enough about the weather to decide.” Sanji sighs.

“It’ll be late summer when we get there, so it’ll be hot and their autumn can be like our summer when it’s warm there, and their winter is like our late autumn.” Usopp explains, pulling clothes out of Sanji’s wardrobe and folding them tightly.

“How hot are we talking about for when we get there? You said late summer, right?” Sanji frowns, taking the clothes off of Usopp and packing them tightly in his bags, taking care to layer his more fragile items in between. He’s basically just got his knife set and its supplies, his book and writing tools and then just his toothbrush, hairbrush and razor. Anything else but those and clothes was pretty much unneeded.

Usopp frowns, clearly trying to think of a comparison for the weather.

“Remember that summer a few years ago when you kept hiding in the wine cellar when it got too hot?” Usopp says flatly. Sanji whines and falls back onto his bed.

“Can I divorce my husband based on the weather?” Sanji groans, pressing his hands into his eyes. It’s not that he hates the heat, he likes warm days. The idea of weeks and months like that heatwave though… how is he going to cope?

“No, and you don’t want to anyway. Which… ah… I wanted to talk to you about.” Usopp says sounding embarrassed.

“You want to talk about my entirely joking divorce?” Sanji snorts, leaning up on his elbows on the bed. Wow, he’s not going to have a bed for weeks and weeks is he?

“No, not about your fictional divorce.” Usopp sighs in a very put upon manner. Sanji doesn’t feel bad at all, Usopp’s known him for most of his life and he still wanted to be Sanji’s nakama, he’s stuck with him now!

“You… you bit Zoro earlier. We saw his lip bleeding a little, so I know you did.” he mumbles.

“Yeah, so? I was kissing someone as hot as Zoro, so I got enthusiastic about it, he didn’t seem to mind at all.” He says defensively. Now he starts doubting himself though. He can remember all of the details, the throaty sound that Zoro made when he bit him, the way he jumped under Sanji’s touch and how tight his hands got on Sanji’s hips. Surely that was interest, right? They have different cultures, but some reactions are just hardwired in, right?

“Yeah, biting someone doesn’t mean just getting overenthusiastic about it in Shimotsuki. It’s… it’s something else.” his nakama says and Sanji watches in interest as Usopp’s face gets redder and redder.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” Sanji grins and watches Usopp wince, “what does it mean then?”

Usopp squeezes his eyes shut tight, like if he does it hard enough then he’s not really having this conversation. Whatever it is that they’re talking about is amazing because seeing Usopp this mortified is side splittingly funny.

“It’s… an invitation to sex. A very urgent one. Biting is essentially what Tsukians use to differentiate between just fooling around and… uh… going for it.” Usopp says, directing his words at the ceiling instead of Sanji.

“So I what, basically painted a big sign saying ‘fuck me’ on myself?” Sanji asks incredulously, sitting up and staring at his friend. Shit, no, his nakama.

“Yeah. So you probably shouldn’t do that.” he sighs, wincing at looking at Sanji.

Sanji looks at him suspiciously. Zoro quite obviously didn’t fuck him then and there, there’s no way that Sanji would have forgotten about that. In fact he just… told Sanji to pack and mentioned the weather and then pissed off.

“Are you lying to me?” Sanji asks suspiciously, leaning closer and squinting at Usopp.

“What? No! Not about this! Sanji, I’m trying to tell you something serious here.” he insists, waving his arms around urgently.

“Okay, well if you’re telling the truth then how do you know about all of this?” Sanji challenges him.

Usopp and he have one sad fact in common, neither of them has a living mother. Usopp’s died when he was ten, so he was perfectly fluent in both languages then but that’s hardly the kind of stuff you’d talk to your kid about is it? Usopp whimpers and ducks his head.

“If I tell you then you have to promise to take this seriously and believe me, okay?” Usopp says in a sober and earnest voice.

“Sure, I promise.” Sanji nods.

“Okay,” Usopp nods and rubs his face with both hands from stress, “so you know how we have romance books?”

“Yeah, you know I own a bunch.” he answers suspiciously.

“Right. So… so you know how they’re all about plot and the romance and falling in love? And… and the couple end up having that magical first time together but you never actually see it. You just hear about it afterwards. Right?” Usopp says.

“Are you getting to a point here or are you just stating the obvious?” Sanji asks wearily. As much as he enjoys listening to Usopp going on about fuck all he does actually have things to do. It’s already almost one in the morning and they’ll be leaving at 6am, which means that he has to get up at 5am at the latest so he really could do with going to bed sometime soon and not hear Usopp say shit about books that everyone knows!

“The point is that those kinds of books in Shimotsuki aren’t like that. They do go into everything without skipping the scene. They write about it, in… in great detail.” Usopp explains, his entire face is red now, from his forehead down to his neck and even along his considerable nose.

“No shit? I’d never thought about that. I mean, would sex even be interesting to describe it in that much detail? But then again I guess that you could argue that romance isn’t interesting if you don’t write it well. But… people read that kind of thing?” Sanji says, squinting at Usopp curiously.

“Yes.” the other teenager nods.

“Well, how do you know it’s not just some theme that just crops up in books? I’ve flirted with people before but I’ve never wrote anyone music, despite how much that’s used in books.” Sanji reasons, getting to his feet and looking at Usopp curiously. He wonders just how many of these books that Usopp gets through and just who he orders them off of back in Shimotsuki. It’s not like there was much trade between the two countries before now.

“Because I had a very uncomfortable conversation with Robin to make sure that I’d point it out to you that you shouldn’t do that again because it took a lot of Zoro’s self control to resist because he probably knew that you had no idea what you were doing. I don’t even want to think of how that could have gone if you’d bit him really hard. You two would probably still be going at lunchtime tomorrow!” Usopp exclaims.

“So… if I was to bite Zoro then… then we’d have sex? I’d be demanding it almost is what you mean, right?” He questions, pacing the floor as he talks.

“Yeah, and the harder you bite, the bigger the challenge. Leaving a… a bruise or a bite mark is… ah…” Usopp says in a strangled tone, not even able to finish his sentence.

“I see.” Sanji nods.

“I totally understand, thank you Usopp.” He adds.

“Oh thank goodness, I was worried I’d have a hard time getting you to see reason.” Usopp says, sagging in relief.

“No, no, I appreciate that. But, still we have to pack so… would you take a look at the rest of my clothes?” He asks, gesturing to his travelling chest. The clothes that he’s got in his two bags are mostly done thanks to Usopp.

“Sure. Let’s see here…” Usopp mumbles, leaning down and peering in. Sanji can still see that the back of Usopp’s neck is red.

He silently takes two steps backwards to his bedroom door. Then another two. He silently spins and breaks out into a sprint through to their shared living area.

“SANJI NO!” Usopp wails from Sanji’s bedroom.

“YES!” Sanji shouts back and vaults the sofa. He lands on the coffee table and bounces off, skidding as he gets near the doors to their courtyard. He’s a scant ten seconds from Zoro’s door if he keeps up this speed.

A sofa cushion hits him with precision accuracy in the back of the knees and Sanji is going too fast to catch himself properly and flails to the floor. Goddamn Usopp’s long range skills. He scrambles to his hands and knees just as Usopp flings himself at Sanji and they both fall into a heap again.

“SANJI DON’T DO IT!” Usopp yells into the fabric of Sanji’s shirt.

“Usopp, I have been married to my AMAZING and unfairly hot husband for almost five fucking MONTHS without getting to have sex with him! And you’re telling me that I came THIS close to finally getting him and getting laid, but he didn’t because I didn’t get what I was asking for. And now, NOW that I DO get it, now you are going to stop me?!” Sanji yells, shoving Usopp away from him, or trying to at any rate. Usopp can be surprisingly clingy and extricating himself from his grip is proving incredibly difficult.

“Trust me, you don’t want to rush this! You’ve waited five months, you can wait a little more!” Usopp shouts into Sanji’s ribs, his face pressed up against him.

“NO! I’ve waited long enough! Do you know how much I imagined getting married to someone I love and having a REAL wedding night? I thought I’d never get that with marrying Zoro but I DO love him and I’ve had no idea how any of this is supposed to work and I nearly got it right and now you’re FUCKING IT UP FOR ME!” Sanji shouts back, wriggling further out of Usopp’s grip. At this rate he may lose his trousers if he keeps squirming like this, but that’s okay because he won’t need them soon!

“And it’s not going to BE what you imagined if you rush this now just because you know how! You’re all over the place because of everything that happened tonight and even if that wasn’t the case, do you really want to do this before spending weeks and weeks on a horse?! It’ll hurt! Do you think Zoro would want you to feel like that? What about him?” Usopp argues, by now his face is against Sanji’s stomach.

That actually gives Sanji pause. Though he’s sure that having sex with Zoro awill be amazing he doesn’t want either of them to regret it. But Usopp is right, he absolutely doesn’t want their first time together to be remembered with a ‘I wish we had waited so that journey back wasn’t so painful and uncomfortable’ and much less with ‘I wish I hadn’t just slept with Zoro so I could stop thinking about shit I didn’t want to think about’. Zoro’s not a distraction and not something he should physically regret either. He can’t treat Zoro like that. He’s going to remember this for the rest of his life.

Shit, Usopp has a point.

“UGH.” Sanji groans, falling back and letting his head hit the expensive rug on the floor that does little to soften the blow of the sandstone slabs beneath.

“I just like him so much Usopp. He told me he loved me, he said it like it was the truest thing he’d ever said. Did you know that he stood up to Zeff without even thinking about it? He did that for me.” Sanji whines, shutting his eyes. He’s really in deep with Zoro, he can’t help it.

“I know, all the more reason to wait until we get to Shimotsuki.” Usopp says quietly, his arms becoming less of a death grip on Sanji’s ribs but still there, just in case Sanji changes his mind again.

“What if we can’t wait? The way he kissed me back Usopp… it was perfect. He’s so strong and fierce and I thought he’d be some violence obsessed thug but he’s not, he’s graceful and beautiful in his own stupid way. I spend half my time wanting to kick him in the face and the rest wanting to climb all over him and I like it all, how can I not?” Sanji breathes, his head tilted back on the rug as the whole idea of Zoro runs through his mind. Zoro’s body, his personality, his irritating wit. All of it. Sanji wants all of it.

All the same, he doesn’t want Usopp on him right now, he wants Zoro. He wants to show Zoro everything that he feels for him and get the same back in return. On top of that he wants to get a feel for what sex is like for Zoro’s people, there’s so much to learn and if the way that Zoro reacted earlier is any indication...

“Uuuuuh, Sanji!” Usopp squeaks, his voice getting higher. Sanji feels… ah… something between them. The two spring apart red face and mortified. Sanji sitting with his knees to his chest, his face scarlet as he tries vainly to pretend that nothing happened despite the evidence otherwise. God only knows how his heart is beating considering how much of it is in Sanji’s face and how much is… elsewhere. Goddamn Zoro, he’s disrupting Sanji’s life and he’s not even here. Sanji makes a note to kick him in retaliation, even if Zoro will have no idea what he’s being attacked for.

“So,” Usopp says and coughs awkwardly, “I think that your bags are packed. I wouldn’t worry about your chest. If you find out you’re missing something then you can always get it there. Zoro had to do that with a few things.” Usopp says, resolutely staring at the wall and not Sanji at all.

“That’s good.” Sanji responds in a slightly strangled tone of voice.

“Yes. Well. I’ll… leave you alone and… see you in the morning.” the longnose says, standing up and awkwardly walking away in the direction of his own room. After he’s safely out of eyeshot Sanji stands up and walks back to his room, cursing his body for being so interested in Zoro, even when it’s someone completely different there who Sanji isn’t interested in like that at all.

Sanji drops his packs on the floor. When he wakes up all he needs to do is get to the kitchen and secure their food, set up his horse and then leave. That’s all. He strips and crawls under the covers with a mental note to remember to pack something to sleep in.

**  
  
**

Sanji awakes before dawn and yawns deeply. He’s used to being up this early to cook but he’s not typically running on so few hours sleep. The fact that his sleep was so fitful and nervous makes him feel, if anything, more tired than when he went to sleep. The thing that woke him up continues knocking on his door and eventually pokes its head around it.

It’s probably mean to call Usopp a thing.

“Did I oversleep? Why are you- you’re also in your pyjamas.” Sanji frowns, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

“Breakfast in the knights quarters, it’s already delivered, so come on.” Usopp says urgently. Perhaps he’s worried about Luffy stealing his.

“Okay, okay. Let me just throw some clothes on.” Sanji mumbles getting out of bed.

“I’ll see you there!” Usopp says over his shoulder and disappears. Sanji blinks sleepily, definitely worried about Luffy stealing his food.

He shimmies into soft leather trousers, they will at least breathe a little, but more importantly they’ll keep the rain off of his skin. Then a finely knit green woolen shirt, he’s got a slick riding cape that’ll keep the worst of the rain at bay, though he has no idea how it’ll hold up for a long time. Either way he doesn’t need to wear it to breakfast. With his black boots on he walks down the hallways to the knights quarters, as much as he is intending on wearing white just to piss people off he doesn’t want his nice things scuffed up on the journey.

He opens the door to the knights quarters, the smell of food wafting down the corridor to him as he arrives. He halts in his tracks though when he sees Zeff in there, still setting food on tables. Usopp deliberately doesn’t look at him, it seems that he wasn’t nervous about Luffy, he was nervous about Zeff.

“What the hell do you want?” Sanji grits out, glaring at the King.

“What happened to all of that soft delicate language? That sounded almost Tsukian.” Johnny asks with a raise of his eyebrows.

“Sanji isn’t being pleasant and polite right now, so it sounds harsher.” Robin answers in Tsukian as well and sips her coffee. Sanji resists the kneejerk urge to switch to the most widely spoken language in the room. He needs Zeff to understand him, which means Baratian only.

Zeff huffs and his moustache twitches. He walks towards Sanji and looks him right in the eye before jerking his head in the direction of the door that he came in through and then walking through it. Sanji grits his teeth and notes that Zoro isn’t looking at him. He’s not making an effort to not look at him though like Usopp is, it’s not that he’s avoiding Sanji’s gaze as he is merely not paying attention. Some wound up thing in Sanji’s chest settles. Zoro cares enough to stand up to Zeff for him when it matters but he’s not babying him either. Good.

The only people at the table that look incredibly uncomfortable are Usopp and Franky. It occurs to him only briefly that Franky’s presence means that he must have accepted Sanji’s invitation to come with him, though he doesn’t need to wonder why with Robin around.

He’s procrastinated enough. If he waits much longer Zeff will think that he’s nervous instead of Sanji giving him the cold shoulder. It’s a fine line to measure. He turns on his heel and walks out into the hallway. He doesn’t bother shutting the door after him because the only people that can understand what they’re saying pretty much all know what’s going on anyway.

“What do you want?” Sanji asks again, his voice slow as if Zeff is particularly stupid. His old man narrows his eyes at Sanji but doesn’t call him on it.

“Your husband came to talk to me last night.” Zeff says, in no way answering Sanji’s question.

“Yeah I know,” Sanji says as he folds his arms and glares at his old man, “that was right around the time when you told him to ship me off to Shimotsuki. You know, because I’m a kid having a tantrum who needs to be sent to his room. Is that about right?”

“No. He came to see me again. He went to great pains to emphasise that the fact that you’re leaving has nothing to do with me telling him that you should. He reiterated again that he doesn’t follow my orders. I guessing he follows yours then.” the old man says with an amused quirk of his eyebrows.

“He’s not a fucking dog, I don’t have him trained if that’s what you’re implying. It’s a strange idea I know, but Zoro actually asks me what I want to do before he does things that affect me. Maybe he can teach you someday!” Sanji snaps at him, his patience finally run too thin to hold anything back.

“You’d only have argued with me if I asked you. I thought your better half might convince you or at least he’d listen to me.” his father points out with a growl.

“Maybe if you knew I’d SCREAM AT you then maybe you should have realised that you might be fucking well COMMITTING SOME HORRIBLE SIN!” Sanji shouts.

“Oh fuck, I sound like Zoro now.” Sanji mutters under his breath, his temper is getting the better of him so much that he’s using the most extreme words possible. Goddamnit he should keep his cool here but he’s so furious.

“I need to get to the bottom of this and I can’t be worrying about you too, stop being so self centred for once!” Zeff shouts. He really shouts, his voice bouncing off of the stone walls and making Sanji’s ears ring.

“What the FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO-” Sanji starts, yelling back but Zeff shouts over him.

“I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU CHANGE AGAIN!” His old man screams at him.

“What?” Sanji says, his voice quiet with confusion. The older man is red in the face and rubs his hands on his forehead and drags them through his hair, a gesture that Sanji has done a thousand times when he’s stressed.

“Before the wreck… before everything… you were so different. You were just like her and nothing like me. But when we got back you were angry at everything. You still are. You lose your temper easily and you snap and argue with people.” Zeff says flatly.

Sanji looks at him stunned. He knew that everything that had happened affected him, that it’s left a mark on him forever, but he didn’t ever think that Zeff held himself responsible. Had he really been so different before? He knows that it changed what he was afraid of and he’d lost his innocence a little, but his personality?

Still, it doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t be allowed to do what he can to honour her memory with the truth.

“So I changed, so what? I’m supposed to just ignore what Absalom said and pretend it didn’t happen?” He challenges him. He’s not going to just give in here, this is too important.

“No, you let me deal with it. She was my wife and I promised to protect her, I need to find out what happened, that’s my job. You promised to be with him and help both of our countries. You have a job to do, focus on that.” the old man tells him with no room for argument in his voice. Though it’s not like that kind of thing has ever stopped Sanji before.

“You had half a lifetime with her, I had five years! At the very least I deserve a chance to-” Sanji argues, but Zeff actually grabs him by the front of his shirt and shakes him.

“To WHAT?! Overwrite any memories you have with her with details of her death? Do you really think that she’d want that?” Zeff bellows at him.

“If you deserve a chance to do what she would have wanted then go with him!” He snaps, pointing into the room.

“The two of you are so fucking annoying that you seem to work and you’ll probably irritate me together for the rest of my natural life you stubborn, disrespectful, idiots! THAT’S what she would want, not for you to torture yourself all over again by investigating this, I couldn’t stop it the first time but like hell am I going to let it happen twice.” He says harshly.

Sanji is stunned into silence for a second time in this argument. Zeff feels… guilty. If they are as alike as Zeff says then Sanji knows what he’d be doing. He’d be going over it over and over in his head, desperate to work out what he could have done differently and feeling responsible for anything.

In fairness, Sanji IS leaving regardless of his reasons why, and if it’ll make Zeff genuinely feel better to have him gone for a while then maybe Sanji can live with that. He’s not stupid enough to think that Zeff believes his own bullshit, if he was then he genuinely would have come to Sanji himself rather than trying to go through Zoro. He knew that Sanji would call him on his shit and he didn’t want that.

Maybe Zeff has a point though. Not about it being better for Sanji to leave than stay, after all if this is going to be so rough on his old man then surely he could stay and support him? Zeff arguing otherwise is idiocy. But he might have a point about what his mother would have wanted. He doesn’t remember enough about her to guess anything detailed, but surely his mother would have wanted him to be happy. Zeff is probably right on that count. He’d be stupid to try and argue against the idea of Zoro making him happy. He doesn’t want to be somewhere else when he could be finding out what really happened to his mother, but it’s possible that they’ll never get an answer and Zeff is right about him being obsessive. Maybe being with Zoro, travelling and then adjusting to a new country will be enough to keep his mind off of it.

Oh shit. Zeff might be right.

“You’ll write to me if you find anything out, right?” Sanji asks.

“What do you take me for?” Zeff snorts. It takes letters months to get that far. Zeff would send it on a boat with money and then it would be passed through to people who made it their business to deliver packages and mail and return them. All in all it’s hardly a speedy way of finding things out. All the same, knowing that he won’t be completely out of touch if Zeff finds something out does make him feel at least a little better.

“Fine. But I’m not going because you said so or I agree with you.” Sanji says petulantly.

“Of course not, that would mean that you’d be listening to me. We both know that will never happen.” Zeff replies with irritation and Sanji smirks a little.

“I didn’t come here to argue with you, brat.” His old man says with a sigh.

“Great job so far- hey!” Sanji exclaims, jumping back from a kick swung in his direction.

“I came to make sure you ate before you left and to tell you that I’d set out food supplies for your journey.” Zeff says sternly.

“Oh, well… thanks for saving me the time I guess.” he says, feeling somewhere between confused and surprised. That didn’t need a big trip over here at all, Sanji was going to go to the kitchens anyway to pick that up and he would have found out that the old geezer had done it then. As for breakfast he could have made that for everyone himself. He doubts that the knights were up until the smell of food roused them. He supposes that Zeff maybe wanted to apologize or say goodbye in his own stupid way.

Zoro’s right, they are fucking weird.

Zeff coughs awkwardly and Sanji scuffs at the sandstone floors with his boot. Perhaps it’s not a good thing that they’re both so alike. With Zoro at least he usually seems to irritate Sanji into saying what he means and Usopp makes Sanji look at how he really feels whether he wants to or not.

“Also I made these for you. Don’t let them out of your sight and don’t just put them in a bag okay? Keep them on you.” Zeff says stiffly and pulls a package out of his apron pocket and hands it to Sanji.

Sanji takes it and frowns at his package wrapped in greaseproof paper. It’s about the width of one of his diaries and just as thick. He undoes the string around it and pulls the corner of the paper back a little. The powerfully overwhelming smell of peppermint smacks into his nose immediately and he instantly knows what it is that he’s looking at. The smallish rectangles layered side by side in his package are all coated in chocolate, partially to keep the insides dry but also to add extra calories.

That’s what these are. Calories.

Each bar is about the size of his open palm in both size and thickness. The chocolate coating might convince an uneducated observer that these were merely sweets, but they aren’t. The mint cake inside is full to bursting with solid and almost fudge-like sugar. Heated during cooking, filled with peppermint and solidified in molds overnight. Zeff’s personal recipe includes an added hit of all of the vitamins and minerals that the human body needs, all of those that can be converted into a powder anyway. Each palm sized bar contains in excess of a thousand calories. A conservative estimate, if he ate just one bar a day he could keep himself fed for ten days and he could if he needed to make it last FAR longer than that. If something went terribly wrong Sanji could probably walk to either Baratie or Shimotsuki depending on which was closer without running out of energy or eating anything else thanks to this.

He clutches it tight to his chest and stares up at Zeff, he can feel tears in his eyes.

“Old man, I-” Sanji starts, choking on his words and the lump in his throat that has started to form. He’s never left the country and though Zeff has in the meantime Sanji hasn’t. He’s never been anywhere since… since then where there was a risk that something could go so wrong that he’d be without food again. Zeff needs him to go, wants him to in fact, but this much will keep Sanji safe from starvation long enough for him to get somewhere safe. Zeff is protecting him as best as he can.

“Don’t lose that. And get your dumb ass to Shimotsuki safe, alright?” Zeff says gruffly, looking pointedly off to the side.

Wet splashes somehow appear on the waterproof paper and Sanji clutches it a little tighter, resisting the urge to throw himself at his old man. That’s not what they do.

“Thank you, for- for this. For everything.” Sanji chokes out, blinking hard to clear his vision. He’s not crying, he’s not.

“Seven months you scrawny brat, I’m sure you’ll be back here pissing me off before I can even relax. I’ll want to kick you out in a week when you get back.” Zeff says in a tight voice, his hand reaching out and wrapping around the back of Sanji’s neck, pulling him a little closer. Zeff used to do that to pull him close when they got back home after his mother died and he had been having nightmares or panicked over nothing. It isn’t a hug, but it’s touch and that’s enough.

Shit, if everything is going to be a competition for them then he may as well up the ante, now of all times. That’s what he tells himself at least. He throws himself at his old man, his arms around his chest and only just managing to touch each other around the man’s back. If he presses his face into the old geezer’s apron then he absolutely can’t be crying because there’s no tears falling. Obviously.

“Stupid kid.” Zeff says into Sanji’s hair, his hands on Sanji’s shoulders.

“I’ll make you proud, you stupid old man!” He shouts into the fabric of Zeff’s clothing.

“Tch, like you were gonna do anything else, brat.” The old man says with a huff of laughter that Sanji can feel in his chest. He pulls back from his old man and stares up at him.

“And I’m gonna train my ass off when I’m there too, and then come back and kick yours!” He shouts at him, his hands shaking. That really does make Zeff laugh.

“What ever you say scrawny stringbean. Go eat your breakfast.” Zeff says in a dismissive tone that belies the slight smile that Sanji can see through the parts where his moustache doesn’t quite obscure his mouth.

“All of it.” Sanji agrees with a nod. He turns around and walks back into the room without a backwards glance. He would see his old man soon enough and he’d stick to his word too, he’ll get stronger and he’d do the best that he can for both his and Zoro’s countries.

He goes in to breakfast and the only thing of note that Zoro says to him is to tell him not to leave pancakes unattended near Luffy. The idiot still managed to save one for Sanji though. Despite the fact that the last twenty four hours have been some of the shittiest hours of Sanji’s adult life if not the shittiest, and he’s not counting his childhood, he’s not. Despite all of that right now things feel… okay. He’s sat next to his husband, near his friend and his nakama and all of Zoro’s knights who are hopefully going to be his friends soon too. He taps his fingers idly on the mint cake at his side and smiles, yeah, things will be okay.

**  
  
**

Things are absolutely not okay. Sanji is standing outside the palace with everyone else, all of the horses are loaded up and Sanji had gone inside for just a minute to fill up all of their water canteens and in that time everyone has gotten dumber.

“You can not put all of the food in one bag.” Sanji says tersely, looking at the assembled morons before him.

“It’s easier. It’s heavy and it can go on Johnny’s horse.” Yosaku says with a frown.

“No.” Sanji insists.

“But it is! Does he not understand me or something?” Yosaku asks, looking at Zoro.

“I understand you just fine asshat! Put the food in everyone’s bags.” He repeats. This is like dealing with children!

“Does it matter?” Zoro frowns, looking at Sanji.

“Yes it fucking matters. Look, you know how sometimes I’m arguing with you because I’m just pissed off or looking for a fight and you can just ignore me?” Sanji snaps, switching back to Baratian so that everyone doesn’t have to be party to their argument.

“Yeah, that’s most of the time. I just argue back ‘cause it’s fun.” Zoro grins darkly.

“Wonderful. This is not one of those times. I am deadly fucking serious here.” Sanji states flatly, flicking back to Tsukian to swear. It’s become a habit now.

“It’s best not to argue with Sanji when it comes to food Zoro.” Usopp chips in.

“Yeah, that’s a super bad idea and you will be here all day trying.” Franky nods.

Zoro looks at the three of them with something between suspicion and curiosity written on his face, but after a few moments he holds his hands up and shrugs.

“Alright.” He says simply and turns to the others.

“Split it up.” He says in a no nonsense voice that Sanji doesn’t hear a lot of.

“Aw, what?” Johnny and Yosaku whine as one and for a split second Sanji wonders what their relationship is with each other. Only for a split second though because Sanji has bigger problems.

Between him and the knights it takes them a good fifteen minutes to split up the food and for Sanji to ensure that the least easily edible stuff goes in the bags of Luffy and Ace. It’s not a fun job but at least they’re out of the rain, though with the way that it’s pounding hard on the roof of the stables Sanji isn’t so sure that riding for today is going to be much more fun.

**  
  
**

Sanji is right, as is often the case. Specifically he is right about the fact that riding all day in a torrential fucking downpour is not fun. Who would have known? Sanji’s trousers are enough to keep the rain out and his slick cape does the job too, so aside from his own sweat his perfectly dry. He is however really fucking cold, the water on his legs saps the heat right out of him and though the heat from his favourite horse rises up to him it’s not enough to keep him warm.

There was a conversation about that too. Sanji has had his horse for a good number of years, she’s an excellent horse. She’s gentle and obedient but fast and doesn’t tire easily. Her name is Seafoam on account of her white coat with the occasional dapples of blue, though in fairness though it’s called blue it is a grey colour.

“Even your fucking horse is white, of course it is.” Zoro had groaned quietly.

“Mock my horse and I’ll have her kick your face off.” Is all Sanji had to say about that.

They eat lunch under the moderate cover of a tree, it’s a quick lunch composed of food made that morning. None of them are keen to stop and cook, not when they all know that there is an inn that they can reach before nightfall and eat as much as they like there. More importantly it will be dry and warm and the sooner they get to it the better.

There’s not even much talking on the way as they ride, the rain is too heavy for them to easily hear each other without shouting. So Sanji spends much of the day fluctuating between pissed off at the weather, and by extension Zeff and his cousins for making him leave today, and soul crushing boredom. They pass on the outside of a few towns, but the villagers are mostly smart enough to keep out of the rain and in any case with the way that Sanji is dressed no one would even recognise him so there’s no point in even waving to them.

All of them are stupidly happy and relieved to get to the inn, rushing into the stables in a big tangle. They each take a stall for their horse and quickly start taking off their supplies and their tack to get the poor things a break. Seafoam looks less than amused with him.

“I hate your fucking country and it’s fucking weather.” Zoro hisses at him over the dividing wall between their stalls.

“My country is great, you mannerless ape.” Sanji snaps back.

“Though fuck the weather today.” He concedes grudgingly. Zoro looks smug, like he’s won something and that’s enough to sour Sanji’s mood all over again.

When they get inside dinner is being served and though he knows they should get out of their wet clothes first they’re all too eager to eat something warm that they all fling themselves at a table and start eating right away. Sanji should probably be a little ashamed of his manners for rushing in like that but he really is cold and food is just the thing to fix that, especially as the dining area of the inn has a roaring fire in it.

The food is pretty good actually, a wide variety of things to offer which is pleasant to see given the size that the kitchen must be in a place like this. There’s plenty of fish, though it’s from the river rather than the sea as that’s closer now. It’s a nice change and Sanji enjoys it. Whomever is cooking the fish clearly knows how to make the most of it, though Sanji’s tongue picks up on things automatically and he notes that more salt on the skin when it was cooking would have been better. They have steamed and cooked potatoes as well as some layered together with garlic and cream to make a mouthwateringly good dauphinoise. There’s vegetables, slightly over cooked, herb infused bread and plenty of meat to go around, though not so much on the end of the table that Luffy and his brother are at.

Zoro has a slightly negative look on his face, though Sanji can’t quite place it. It’s some kind of displeasure at something, though clearly not disgust or anger. His mouth is just pulling down at the corners every so often.

“What’s crawled up your ass and died?” Sanji asks, kicking him in the ankle. Nami snickers into her wine and remarks to Robin about how natural his cursing is.

“Nothing.” Zoro answers, kicking him in return.

“Then what’s with the face?” Sanji retorts, gesturing to Zoro’s overall demeanour with his fork.

“It’s nothing.” Zoro answers petulantly.

“You’re only making me want to know more.” Sanji says. He would have liked to say curious but he’s not sure of the word, or if he knows it then it’s not coming to mind right now. Zoro scowls down at his plate a little, clearly weighing up whether or not to say. He looks up and eyeballs Usopp and Franky a few seats down, the two of them are engaged in an argument about something or another.

“It’s good, but your is better and you’ve ruined my sense of taste. Everything else just tastes kind of…” Zoro trails off with a shrug and eats a little more, as if to prove the point that he’s not going to leave any.

Sanji can feel the heat creeping up the back of his neck and, not for the first time, he wishes that his skin was darker like Zoro’s or even Usopp’s so it wasn’t so obvious. As it is his pale skin makes it obvious at the slightest embarrassment or in this case the sudden case of butterflies in Sanji’s stomach.

“Idiot.” He mutters and kicks Zoro in the ankle again only not as hard, or fast, and maybe he leaves his foot a little tangled up with Zoro’s after that.

When dinner is over Sanji agrees to go with Nami to find the innkeeper and negotiate a rate for all of them to stay at. Sanji is more than happy to spend time with a woman as beautiful and sweet as Nami and if she needs someone to translate for her then Sanji will do the best with his admittedly limited abilities then he is more than happy to do so.

“Did you stay here on the way through?” Sanji asks her curiously.

“No, we rode by it, but it was early morning then. We’d- over night about five- away. Stupid really.” Nami sighs. Sanji guesses that she was saying camped and… miles probably. He wonders if Tsukians measure distance differently. He’d have to ask Robin or Usopp.

“Oh, I think this is her.” Sanji says, noting the woman bustling by with an apron and a pencil in her hair with a ledger under her arm.

“Excuse me ma’am, are you the innkeeper here?” He asks politely.

“Yes I- I… you’re the Prince!” She exclaims, looking at him wide eyed. By now Sanji had taken his rainproof cape off and was instead in his fine woolen shirt.

“Yes I am.” He beams at her brightly.

“Does she recognise you?” Nami guesses, looking between him and the somewhat starstruck looking innkeeper. She looks sweet and vaguely grandmotherly, though Sanji never met his own grandmother. Sanji nods to Nami but doesn’t say anything. The innkeeper looks to Nami and then the table of his companions and puts two and two together, the fact that Luffy is loudly telling a joke in Tsukian probably helps.

“Oh! You’re with your husband! I saw the parade for your wedding but I never did see your groom, oh how wonderful, in my inn no less!” She gushes happily.

“Ah well, he’s right over there, the man with the green hair.” he smiles, pointing over to Zoro.

“Oh, green hair. Do they have lots like him where he’s from? I know we have a few but you don’t see so many here.” She says thoughtfully.

“I don’t know.” Sanji admits with a shrug, “But I’m going to find out. We’re on our way there now, we were just hoping to stay the night here. Do you have any rooms?”

Her face lights up so brightly that it nearly scorches his eyes and he only just manages to avoid another round of ‘the prince, in my inn!’ by flashing details of numbers at her and statements about the horses. After that she rustles up several keys and starts asking about who will be sleeping in what rooms as they don’t all have single beds in.

He redirects the question to Nami and relays her answers to her, only realising at the end what it means. Luffy and Ace will share a room and the same bed, they used to a lot as kids so they don’t care. Johnny, Yosaku and Kaku can share a room with a double and a single bed. Sanji fervently hopes that Johnny and Yosaku aren’t a couple or else he’ll feel bad about ruining their time by throwing Kaku in the room with them. Nami and Robin will share a room with two single beds as well Franky and Usopp.

Which leaves him and Zoro.

“The two of you can have our best room! I’ll go get it ready just for you, right now!” The innkeeper exclaims with a flourish.

“What about the money?” Nami reminds him, tugging on Sanji’s sleeve.

“Ah, sorry ma’am. We might be up pretty early tomorrow, I’m not sure what time yet but I’d hate to disturb you if it was early. So it might be easier for us to pay you now, if that’s alright with you.” He says, halting her in her tracks. She pauses and looks at him with wide eyes and then seems to jolt, waving her hands in front of her wildly.

“Oh no, no! I could never take money from you! It’s an honour to have the Prince stay in my inn!” She insists waving her hands even harder so much so that Sanji thinks that she might propel herself into a wall with that much force.

“The food at least.” Sanji reasons and with that at least the innkeeper looks like she might be swayed.

“Speak to my sister about it, she’s the one who runs the kitchen. I’ll go get your rooms ready.” She says with a nod.

Nami looks up at him with a slightly put off pout to her lips and the beginning of a frown in her eyebrows. He’s just had an entire conversation without her and not told her anything of note.

“I need to speak to the cook, she’s going to tell me how much we owe.” Sanji explains and goes off to do just that.

He pays the cook in advance and then, with a cautious glance out at the others, pays her a little more. He flusters her by looking around her kitchen with her permission and complimenting her on the organisation of her tools. He takes so long that by the time he comes back out most of their group have gone and only Kaku, Ace and Yosaku are still at the table. The three of them are drinking and Kaku is telling some joke, the punchline of which Sanji doesn’t quite get even as he walks past them. Jokes still escape him a little in Tsukian and it’s harder to tell what they’re saying with their voices a little rougher from drinking.

He goes to where his bags were but they’re gone. Taking his next best guess he heads upstairs and opens the door of the largest room, letting the door open slowly so that if anyone inside doesn’t want him to come in then they can say so. He peeks around and Zoro is sat crosslegged on the rug in the middle of the room looking at him. Sanji comes into the room and shuts the door behind him. Zoro breathes in and pulls his shoulders almost up to his ears and straightening his back as he does it, then he breathes out and lets them drop, allows his spine to bend slightly and his head to tilt down ever so slightly closer to his chest.

The first time that Sanji had seen Zoro do this he’d thought that it was some religious thing, some kind of prayer. He’d thought that odd because he knows that Tsukians are by and large total disbelievers in any and all gods. It’s some kind of spiritual thing but it’s for Zoro’s own spirit, not some other one out there. Sanji and his people aren’t so much religious as they are believers in a series of superstitions and general principles of behaviour.

Always feed someone in need of food, never leave anyone else without food, never betray someone who has set foot on your ship when they’re still on it and the sea is always watching. It’s not that they think that the sea is all powerful or anything but it is alive. Some people pray to the sea but Sanji hasn’t seen the point in that for a very long time. When Sanji speaks of God it’s not an entity that rewards, people make their own fortune on the ocean and off. You don’t get things that you don’t work for, not things that matter anyway. The kindest thing that the sea will do is spare you from it’s wrath and wrath is something that the sea does in spades. She is violent and cruel in her fury but without her there would be no life. The more people are at sea the harder they believe in these things and Sanji has no problem with that.

He realises that he’s been standing there for a little while just watching Zoro breathe softly as he does whatever it is that he’s doing. There is a word for it and Usopp did tell him but right now it escapes him. His eyes drift over to the bed and it’s just that. A bed. They’re going to be sharing, of course they are, he would have had to have been a special kind of stupid to think otherwise. He’d simply avoided thinking about it, dodging the thought like a kick and not letting the idea land a hit on his mind.

His mind flashes to himself over Zoro, naked and muscles shaking with Zoro’s hands running over him. He imagines himself more caught up in kissing Zoro than anything, whispering to him that he loves him, he loves him so much and he’d do anything for him. He imagines Zoro saying the same thing back his mouth and his body. He dreams of Zoro touching his skin with reverence and awe, he can picture the look in Zoro’s eyes when he sees just how real what they have is. He imagines love. He sees just what he wants, a chance to show Zoro everything and to give him as much as he can just to prove it. In his mind’s eye everything is soft edges and slightly out of focus, light coming from everywhere and nowhere from being too caught up in Zoro to paint in any other details.

He swallows thickly and shuts his eyes. Maybe he and Zoro aren’t there yet, he knows that’s a lie but if he tells it to himself then he might buy it. In any case Usopp has a point, no matter how slow and gentle they would be with each other it would still hurt for a few days afterwards from riding the horses for that long. Ordinarily a little ache afterwards would be fine, he’s heard it described as almost a faint discomfort right in the lower back, like a muscle ache. That would be fine but riding all day every day will probably get really fucking sore all by itself, adding their first time into it wouldn’t be a good idea. Usopp is right of course, it’s not a good time.

He opens his eyes again and Zoro is sat unmoving in the middle of the rug and despite his best judgement Sanji’s heart sinks a little at reality not matching up. Shit. He needs to get his head on straight. He walks carefully around Zoro, careful not to get into his space and disturb him and instead goes to his bags. He opens them and quietly goes through them until he comes to his pen, ink and book. He settles himself on the floor before the gently crackling fireplace and, not unlike Zoro, begins to write.

He’s always thought of this not so much as a letter to someone or a record like some people do, it’s more of a stream of consciousness, a slice of his mind at that moment. He examines ideas as they go through his mind, notes them and either warrants them worth more thought or simply releases them again, like fish into a pond. He writes about what might happen with his cousins, he writes about the journey, he wonders just what route Nami is taking him and he starts to write about Zoro when a breath against his shoulder makes him jump.

He tilts his head and sees Zoro. The other man shifts and settles himself on the floor, slightly behind and to the side of Sanji. Sanji relaxes a little and puts pen back to paper, it could be nice writing when Zoro’s watching him like this. It’s not like the other man can read over his shoulder so it’s not an invasion of privacy either. It’s just pleasant.

“You’re doing it wrong.” Zoro says, jarring Sanji out of his pleasant delusions.

“No I’m not.” He bites back.

“Yeah, you’re left to right, look.” Zoro says, reaching an arm over Sanji’s shoulders and tracing his finger over the page without touching it. He’s gesturing to the way that Sanji writes, which of course is right to left. What other way would it be?

“We go this way.” Zoro elaborates, moving his finger right to left

“Oh, you do it backwards.” Sanji says getting it. He imagines that it would be pretty strange to see it the other way around.

“No, we do it right, you do it backwards.” Zoro insists but that argument it cut off when Sanji pokes him in the forehead with the end of his pen. It’s not the end covered in ink, not this time at least. He’s not sure that he’s above the temptation to write crude things on his husband’s forehead so it would be best not to tempt him.

He makes an unimpressed ‘hmph’ noise as the moral high ground against defacing his husband’s face wins out. He smoothes his ruffled feathers back down and writes about the fact that Zoro is the singularly most annoying man in the entire world right in front of Zoro without him even knowing it. Zoro relaxes a little, unaware of his near miss with new ink and instead watches Sanji write a little more.

“How do you write your name?” Zoro asks him and Sanji pauses.

Seeing no reason not to oblige the other man he scrawls a quick explanatory note, though he doesn’t know why as even he never reads these things, and writes his name out a little larger than the rest and in careful elegant strokes.

“It suits you, it’s curly.” Zoro says. Sanji scowls and pulls back so that he can properly glare at Zoro and his smug fucking grin and for the thousandth time he wants to kick him in the face. Clearly Zoro reads that from him and his grin becomes wider and he leans a little more into his space, his expression predatory. Sanji breaks the stare first, glaring down at his book and mentally reminding him that now is not the time for this even though it would be a great opportunity to wipe that smug grin off Zoro’s face and show him that he loves him anyway. Two things achieved in one wonderful solution. His pen flies over the paper as he lets those thoughts out and feels the pressure go down in himself every so slightly. Admitting honestly what he wants is somewhat soothing.

“That’s not how I would write it though.” Zoro says after a few moments.

“No shit, it’s almost like you speak a different language and write in one too!” Sanji gasps in mock surprise. Zoro smacks him in the arm.

“Can I show you?” Zoro asks, holding his hand out for the pen. Sanji looks at him for a moment or two in suspicion. Zoro had better not break his pen. He hands the thing over to Zoro anyway. Zoro takes it in his left hand and Sanji wonders if that will make it harder for him to write.

“We don’t have your name so I’ll have to spell it.” Zoro explains and leans over, making harsh and angular strokes on the page from right to left.

Sanji frowns in confusion, if Zoro is spelling his name then how come it only has three letters? He saw Zoro write them as three complete things so it’s not as if they’re just merged together.

“Why only three?” He asks curiously.

“Sa-na-gee. It’s the closest there is.” Zoro answers, sounding out the individual sounds as he points to each character in turn.

“That’s not how you say my name!” Sanji snaps indignantly. It’s not even close!

“I know, I said it’s the closest! It’s not smooth like Baratian is.” Zoro shrugs.

“Great, so everyone is going to mispronounce my name when we get there too, great.” He grumbles unhappily. He’s worried enough about not being good enough at the language, now he has to worry about them saying his name wrong.

“I’ll tell them, they won’t get it wrong when they speak to you.” Zoro says softly, switching to Baratian to make his tone even more gentle. He catches Sanji’s chin with his fingers and draws Sanji into a slow kiss. Sanji is puzzled for a moment before he remembers that Zoro gets off on this private feelings thing. Still, he kisses Zoro back and it does actually make him feel better. It’s as if Zoro has shouldered half of the weight of his worries and lightened Sanji’s burden.

“How do you write my name?” Zoro asks after they pull apart from each other and Sanji pauses. He could write it out and hope that Zoro is unfamiliar enough with the script of Sanji’s language that he doesn’t notice that his name appears approximately a thousand times on this page and the one to the left. Alternatively he could just own up and be honest. Zoro likes honest.

“There.” He answers honestly, pointing it out.

“You’re writing about me?” Zoro asks, his voice edging into the category of smug and cocky.

“I am with you, heading to your country and sharing a room with you right now. Why wouldn’t I be writing about you?” Sanji drawls, like it’s obvious.

In fairness it is but he doesn’t go into the details that he’s all aflutter about the idea of sharing a bed with Zoro tonight, or that he wants to impress Zoro by proving that he can ride and keep up with the Tsukians. Zoro doesn’t need to know all of that. Or any of that.

Zoro hums in acknowledgement that he’s heard what Sanji said, but he doesn’t add anything else. Instead he stands up and starts to take his clothes off. Red faced Sanji snaps his gaze back to the fireplace and his book, writing what Zoro’s doing in a hasty panic. He really hopes that Zoro puts something else on because sleeping in a bed with him when he’s not wearing clothes will seriously test Sanji’s libido. He wants to make his first time, in fact every time, emotional and special. Even with that considered he is still nineteen and everything in his body is screaming at him to get his hands all over Zoro, regardless of what his heart and his head has to say on the matter.

“I’m going to sleep.” Zoro announces with a yawn.

Sanji steels himself and glances around at Zoro. Luckily, or perhaps unlucky as his body insists, Zoro is wearing something. What he’s wearing is a pair of simple black sleep trousers, not unlike Sanji’s own. The way that they hang low on Zoro’s hips are extremely distracting though.

Sanji looks away against and squeezes his eyes shut. He finishes up his entry in his book and puts it and the rest of his writing supplies back in his bag after cleaning off his pen. He rummages for his own sleep clothes and stands up with them in hand.

“Yeah, me too.” He mutters awkwardly.

He changes as quickly as possible with his back to Zoro, unsure whether or not he wants the other man to be watching him or not. On the one hand if he is then it shows that Zoro is interested and that thought is a pretty big turn on in and of itself. But on the other the whole thing feels kind of embarrassing. They’ve never shared a bed before and suddenly getting naked in front of him, even for a short time, leaves him red faced and embarrassed.

With that done he turns around and shoves his things back into his bag and turns off all of the remaining lights, though obviously he can’t do anything about the fireplace. It’s nice though, the dim and warm light makes the room feel sleepy and almost romantic. He shoves that thought out of his mind with great haste and makes his way to the bed.

He slides under the covers and he stays there for a minute before Zoro sits up and looks at him.

“Swap with me, I need to be by my swords.” Zoro says, gesturing to the three of them by the bed.

“Still convinced that someone is going to try to kill you in the night? I promise that I won’t.” Sanji grins teasingly. It’s a cutural thing for sure here but Sanji can’t understand why Zoro is so firm on it. Sure he’s a prince but being on that high of a guard all of the time seems exhausting.

Sanji clambers out of bed and Zoro does the same, allowing Sanji to get back under the covers and into the wall side of the bed. It’s a little odd, his own bed at home doesn’t have either side against a wall but the inn doesn’t have the same amount of space as a luxury that the palace does. He’s not going to complain or anything, it just feels strange.

He turns onto his side and watches as Zoro gets into bed next to him. The bed isn’t all that big and the two of them would be touching each other if they lie side by side. It feels a little weird being on his side facing Zoro when Zoro’s just on his back, like he’s just going to spend all night watching him like a creep. He tries being on his back but then he’s awkwardly aware of how they’re both just there side by side staring up at the ceiling. He tries flipping over to face away from Zoro, only now his face is about three inches from the wall and that just feels really odd as well.

He feels Zoro shift next to him and when Sanji returns to being on his back he sees that Zoro is facing away from him. The marimo shifts back on his other side so that he’s looking right at Sanji.

“This is weird, right?” Sanji asks quietly.

“Yeah, it is.” Zoro replies with an amused smile tugging at the corner of his mouth and the soft sound of almost laughter in his breath.

“I’ve never slept in the same bed as anyone else.” Sanji admits.

“I have but…” Zoro trails off, the corner of his mouth pulling down and his nose wrinkling in distaste. Sanji’s mind races over the idea that Tsukians don’t have the same view of sex as Baratians do and… and Zoro may well have had sex with other people, so he probably will have shared a bed with someone.

“With Luffy you don’t choose. He sleeps all over everyone.” Zoro says with a sigh and Sanji feels his eyes widen in shock. He could have sworn that Zoro said that he doesn’t sleep with his nakama! But… did he just mean Robin or all of them? If he’s been sleeping with Luffy and Luffy has been sleeping with everyone else then… what the hell is going on with all of them?!

“Doesn’t matter where we leave him in the tent, he moves when he’s sleeping. I’ve woken with his foot in my throat, I woke up to him tangled in my legs, he once slept right over my chest with his stomach.” Zoro says, grimacing as if the mere memory is enough to annoy him.

Sanji can’t help but burst out laughing. Zoro… Zoro clearly doesn’t get the innuendo that he just said there! He doesn’t mean that Luffy sleeps with everyone or that Zoro is sleeping with him, except in the quite literal sense. Relief, amusement and tiredness all bubble together within Sanji until he has his face pressed into Zoro’s shoulder as he tries to smother his laughter.

“I- ahaha! I promise not to- eheheh- to do that!” Sanji manages between fits of sniggering laughter as he tries to suppress it.

“Keep laughing and I’ll swap. You can sleep with Luffy.” Zoro threatens, rolling on his side to glare at Sanji straight on. With that idea in mind Sanji manages to make himself stop laughing, but only just.

“Okay, okay. Let’s try and make this work.” Sanji says biting his lip to stop himself from letting out the last snickers of amusement that are still hiding inside of him. He turns onto his other side, facing the wall once more, so that Zoro is against his back. Zoro moves in what Sanji is quite sure is a shrug and settles a little closer to him, his heat radiating through Sanji’s back.

Hm. It’s nice but he’s still not comfortable.

“No, other way.” He decides, turning over so that he’s facing Zoro now.

“Fine.” Zoro says disinterestedly, his eyes shut.

“No, you too. Turn over.” Sanji insists, shoving Zoro in the shoulder.

“What? Why?” Zoro frowns and opens his eyes to look at Sanji in irritated puzzlement.

“Because.” he sighs and shoves Zoro again.

With a grumble Zoro turns around so that he’s on his other side, facing towards the fireplace. He sighs deeply and Sanji watches his back relax after a few deep breaths and Sanji curves his body around Zoro’s. Zoro does have a very nice back and it does feel nice to be close to it and watch him breathe and see the play of the dim firelight on his muscles. That is all very pleasant.

But he’s still not comfortable.

Sanji sighs and rolls onto his back again. No, not comfortable there, even with the extra space from Zoro being on his side now.

He flips onto his stomach and tries to settles in place but still it’s not comfortable. Maybe it’s just that he has another person in bed with him and it’s going to feel odd either way.

Perhaps the blankets are on weird. He rolls over again, sits up and starts to fuss with the blankets. That is until a hand snags in his hair and yanks him back. Sanji squawks in surprise and flails for a second before he twists out of the grip and lands on his side. His head hits Zoro’s chest and he kicks at the mattress to get stable.

“If you keep moving you can sleep on the floor!” Zoro snaps, fisting his hand in the back of Sanji’s shirt and pulling at him.

“NO! Stay… stay right there. Stay still.” Sanji says seriously, holding up a hand to stop Zoro.

Zoro pauses on arm still wrapped around Sanji and his fist remains clenched in the back of Sanji’s shirt. Sanji shuffles a little, moving up against Zoro and a little higher. Warily he puts his head back down so that his ear is just against the place where the muscles in Zoro’s arm connect to those in his chest and his cheek rests against Zoro’s chest entirely. His hand is still on Zoro’s side, his hand tensed to shove Zoro away but now he relaxes it and loosely wraps it over Zoro’s midsection. Sanji lowers the knee that he had started to dig into Zoro’s thigh and lets his leg fall around Zoro’s.

His body is warm from his neck down to his toes, every part of him feels like he’s pressed against Zoro in some way or another. Despite his awkwardness at sharing a bed with Zoro it seems that, despite all logic that should indicate otherwise, it’s only when he’s as close as he can be that he feels right. He’s comfortable.

“This is good.” He says softly against Zoro’s chest.

Zoro’s hand untenses and he releases the back of Sanji’s shirt. He thinks that it might have been accidental until Zoro’s hand smoothes the shirt with his hand and runs a path down Sanji’s ribs.

“You’re not going to move again?” Zoro asks warily as Sanji relaxes against him. He can feel Zoro’s body heat and it’s as if it’s melting him through and through.

“No, I’m good.” Sanji mumbles, looking up and Zoro and feeling sleep catch up to him.

Zoro is looking back at him and he looks… surprised almost. It’s not at what Sanji said, he’s pretty sure of that, but it’s more like the kind of expression that Sanji imagines that he would have if he just thought of a new recipe.

“What?” He asks in confusion and he feels the breath catch in Zoro’s chest. He sees up close Zoro’s throat move as he swallows. He’s about to ask again when Zoro twists upwards and nearly completely dislodges Sanji. He starts to protest but Zoro swoops in and kisses him, halting Sanji before his tirade begins.

Zoro pulls back and stares at him again, that same expression on his face and he hears Zoro mutter something quick and quiet to himself and Sanji thinks that he catches the word ‘luck’ in there somewhere.

“What?” He repeats, feeling confused albeit happy. He’s always pretty happy if Zoro kisses him, though perhaps after time that won’t work quite so well to stop him being annoyed at Zoro’s oddness.

“Nothing,” Zoro says, pulling Sanji back down as he settles back where they were before, “go to sleep.”

Confused but vaguely touched Sanji relaxes again and closes his eyes. He can hear Zoro’s heart beating, somewhat fast but slowing down. The hand that Zoro has against Sanji’s ribs is moving in small soft circles and with that touch and the sound of Zoro’s heart beating under Sanji’s ear he falls into sleep.

 


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I figured by now that you guys are gonna need a map for this fic, so worry not! I have you covered! It's right at the end of the chapter for you to see then. Enjoy!

“You need to teach me about sex.” Zoro says firmly.

For some reason Usopp makes a noise like he’s choking and nearly falls off of his horse. Usopp scrambles back upright in his saddle and looks at Zoro with his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

“You- you what?” Usopp says in a strangled tone of voice.

“You heard me.” He says with a fed up sigh. He glances up the trail of their horses and sees Sanji pretty far ahead talking to Kaku. Presumably Sanji is trying to ensure that they all get along which is a good thing, even though Kaku doesn’t look all that enthusiastic about it. Either way Sanji isn’t in earshot so Usopp can’t be panicking about that surely?

“I- ah… what… what sort of thing are you wanting to know? And why are you asking me?” Usopp asks nervously.

“Well I can’t ask Robin, she’s never been with a Baratian. Not that I know of at least. And I’m not going to ask Sanji, I don’t want him to think that I have no idea what I’m doing.” Zoro frowns. Aside from the oddness that conversation would cause between him and Sanji he at least wants to please the man without looking like a fool.

“I know they don’t bite because you said Sanji didn’t understand that so it’s obviously different, right?” He asks, suddenly feeling uncertain. What if it’s just the biting thing.

“There’s more to it than just that but… well, I’ve never slept with anyone before so I can’t really tell you all that much.” The interpreter says, his dark skin tinting redder in his embarrassment.

“What does sleeping with someone have to do with sex? Is this another pronunciation thing that I’m not getting? I mean I slept in bed with Sanji last night and we didn’t…” he trails off with that thought. He remembers the blonde finally settling down to sleeping against him. He keeps getting these moments with Sanji where the other man will be close to him or he’ll have a moment of looking so impossibly beautiful that his heart just stops.

Back in Shimotsuki there aren’t any people that look like Sanji. In fact Kaku with his fairer but tan skin and very dark blonde hair was the closest that Zoro had seen before Sanji. Boa Hancock was a little paler perhaps, but Zoro isn’t sure if that was just makeup or her natural tone. He suspects that since the rest of her colouring is closer to Robin’s that she’s likely just wearing some kind of makeup. The Amazon Lilly women are weird.

Sanji though… he barely looks human sometimes. He looks like something someone dreamed up, like the stories of mythical men and women who were half in this world and half out of it, their skin glowing from within with terrifying magic. He knows that it’s not true, Sanji is just especially exotic. He’s pretty sure that Sanji would kick his teeth in for saying that but it’s true. Maybe it’s that he’s so different that he captures Zoro’s fascination but he doesn’t think that it’s as simple as that. It’s just that Sanji looks… perfect.

“No it’s a figure of speech. It’s another way of saying sex I guess. Hold on, let’s switch, that’ll be easier.” Usopp says, changing to Tsukian halfway through.

“Like I said though, I don’t know how much help I can be. I don’t have any practical experience.” Usopp says and sounds a touch sad about it.

“Why? I can’t see you having much troubling finding someone, surely Sanji doesn’t keep you that busy. Before he needed you to teach him Tsukian you must have had some free time.” Zoro reasons. Usopp isn’t an unattractive guy and he’s really smart.

“No, it’s not that. I guess it’s just Baratian culture I suppose.” Usopp says and nearly falls off of his horse. He wasn’t paying attention to where he was directing it and the animal had veered around a tree at the last moment and the direction change made the younger man flail wildly.

“So tell me about it.” Zoro prompts, watching the woodland around him. This isn’t the easiest path through the woods but Nami has assured them all that it’s the quickest to get to where they’re going, not that Zoro had any idea where that is in the short term. He’s long since stopped bothering to ask.

“Start with biting and explain from there.” He suggests.

“Biting isn’t an invitation like it is with you. I mean… obviously Baratians still do it, Sanji did it to you but it’s just a thing you can do. It’s no different to making out with someone.” Usopp says from behind Zoro as his horse tries to navigate the forest to catch up. He frowns at the idea of biting being so different, it’s odd but he can live with it. Sanji understands what it means now so it shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Zoro glances over his shoulder until Usopp’s horse catches up with room for them to be more or less side by side through the woods again, or at least through parallel spaced out trees. The forest is thinning here a bit at last. Usopp’s face is pinched in concentration and he opens his mouth a few times to speak but cuts himself off and lapsing into silence again.

Zoro has time to stare up at the lush green leaves of the trees above. The trees in this forest are different to any he’s seen before, they have skinnier trunks but a little above his head they start pushing out long branches, filling the air above them with dappled light and much appreciated cover from the continuous rain. Zoro isn’t sure if the rain has petered out as Nami predicted or if the trees really are that good at diverting it.

“There are exceptions to this, I mean, I bet that not every Tsukian has the same views on love or knowing someone.” Usopp starts unsteadily, putting a disclaimer on his words before he’s even begun explaining.

“I guess with love maybe, but not knowing someone. I mean, people sometimes think that they are starting to get there when they’re not. Fully knowing someone is pretty clear.” Zoro answers, wrinkling his nose at that kind of comparison.

“Maybe that was a bad analogy. Look, everyone knows what’s normal or expected or… the culture of it. Not everyone does it like that though, does that make sense?” Usopp tries again.

“Yeah, okay. So what’s expected then? You haven’t explained anything yet.” he points out and Usopp actually rolls his eyes at him.

“Sex is something that you only do with someone that you’re married to. It’s supposed to be this big romantic important thing that everyone idealises and it’s the experience and the build up to it that’s important.” Usopp explains slowly.

“You only get one first time and the idea is that you remember that first time more than other times so it’s important.” He adds, looking up at the trees above him with a frown as he tries to put his culture into words.

“That doesn’t make any sense. I’m not going to forget things just because they happen more than once.” He says irritably. Is all of this going to be so hard to understand? He feels sometimes like Sanji’s culture just doesn’t get basic relationship shit. He had no idea about nakama or… or knowing someone or anything! Now they have weird ideas about sex too? He’d thought they might be different but this is just baffling.

“Okay, no.” Usopp sighs with a shake of his head.

“Let me try this another way. Name a country that you haven’t been to.” the other man says to him. Zoro frowns as he thinks.

“I haven’t been to Loguetown. Why does that matter?” He replies scratching his head. Has Usopp just given up and changed topic on him?

“Right so, if you and Sanji went there together you’d see things and go places and then if you ever went back there again you’d have all of those memories and they’d be really clear because you experienced that with each other the first time around. Now do you get it?” Usopp explains.

Zoro feels like someone just poured ice down his back. The idea makes sense but that is… that’s very different to Shimotsuki. What if he’d been dumb enough to oblige Sanji with what he’d thought he was asking? He could have completely destroyed what Sanji had been expecting or hoping for. Another awful thought occurs.

“Is he going to be angry when he finds out that my first time was years ago?” he asks numbly. He doesn’t regret any of the relationships he’s had, however short, or any of the people that he’s had sex with at all. But the thought of disappointing Sanji hurts. He knows that none of this between them was planned, he’d never even expected to like the other man and he knows that Sanji’s expectations of him then had been equally low. Now that there’s love involved however it’s more complicated.

“What? No, why would he?” Usopp asks, now it’s his turn to look perplexed.

“I’ve been to Alabaster but he hasn’t, right? But if I took him there he’d know that I’d been there before, wouldn’t that make him angry? That’s how it is, isn’t it?” He asks in horror. What if Sanji doesn’t know or hasn’t realised? Will Sanji still want him if he knows that? Or if he does will he break the cook’s heart?

“What? No. What’s with that expression anyway?” the younger man says in confusion but Zoro’s mind is racing.

He can picture himself telling Sanji about this. The blonde wouldn’t cry but he can picture his hurt expression, a look of betrayal or even anger about it. It’s not his fault, it’s just different in Shimotsuki, he would understand that wouldn’t he? He tries to compare it to someone persistently trying to treat Zoro like they were in love with him

“Because if Sanji is expecting- if he wants something from me that I can’t-” He says, feeling dread and fear rise up in his throat like bile and he can’t remember the last time that he’s felt like this. He’s not a man to get scared easily, but there’s nothing that he can do about this, he can't fight this, he can’t fix it and it’s Sanji.

“Ugh, no, you’re not getting it. Let me explain it again. Let’s say that Sanji wanted to eat one thing in particular, he’s always wanted it. Now he’s going to get the chance and you think that he’ll be mad because you’re eating something different?” Usopp explains.

Zoro frowns, wouldn’t Sanji want him to be the same as him though? What’s the point of that kind of idea if they’re not?

“The point is that for him he needs his first time to be with someone he loves and loves him, that’s what makes it perfect. It’s not rushed or something he’s stupidly decided to do because he’s being impulsive, it’s about it being… right. Right person, right feeling, right time. It matters that it’s like that for him. It’s not going to be your first but… well… I’m pretty sure that the rest matches up for you too. As long as it’s love then the rest of it’s your business.” Usopp says with a shrug.

Up ahead of them he catches the bright sound of Sanji’s laughter and Zoro sees Franky gesturing wildly in the middle of some story and Sanji wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

“Yeah… that won’t be a problem.” He says, more to himself than Usopp. Sanji says something back to Franky that is so warped by speed and Sanji’s laughter that Zoro can’t make it out, but it does make Franky guffaw loudly and even Robin cracks a small smile.

**  
  
**

Two hours of riding and general chatter amongst their group later they come right up to the mountain range that has been looming on the distant horizon for some time.

“Oh… you never said that you wanted to go through-” and then Sanji says some words that Zoro doesn’t recognise.

“Go through what?” He asks, thinking perhaps that he just didn’t catch it, but Sanji turns and looks at him as Zoro gets his horse next to Sanji’s and the man repeats himself and makes things no clearer.

“Robin, help.” Zoro says unhappily, turning to look at Robin.

“I… actually don’t know that word. The second one I do, it’s… something pass. The name of the route that Nami’s taking us I would suppose.” Robin says with an exceptionally embarrassed shrug.

“Wait, pass? You said pass?” he frowns, surely he must have heard her wrong too but no, Robin nods in confirmation that she did say pass.

“So pass means to go by someone or something, to hand something to someone, a description of how time moves AND a route to take? And they’re not even pronounced differently, it’s just all the same word?” He asks tensely in Tsukian.

“Yes, that’s right.” Robin confirms with a nod.

He turns to Sanji with an accusatory glare.

“Fuck you and your fucking language!” He snaps at him.

“Fuck my language? Your language is the one that pulls new words out of it’s ass for no goddamn reason! I’ll rip out the pages of one of your dictionaries and shove them down your throat one by one until you choke on it!” Sanji snarls back in pitch perfect Tsukian. As always when it comes to angry threats and insults Sanji sounds like a native.

“Whatever, you fucking moron. What’s the word in his stupid language?” Sanji asks Usopp and the long nosed translator frowns.

“I… I don’t know it either.” he says.

“Perhaps we don’t have a word for it. Could you describe it?” Robin asks. Franky pitches in with a question about the mysterious word and the rest of their group look on in unguarded curiosity.

“Well they’re really big, and they breathe fire.” Usopp explains.

“Pff, you just described two of the people that we’re travelling with.” Sanji says with a snort.

“What do you- holy shit!” Zoro says, starting out as a question and ending with a yell of surprise as Franky suddenly blows a streak of fire in the air. Ace laughs in amazement and does it too, causing the two of them to compete with making bigger and bigger streams of fire.

“Well, they’ll be at at that for a while.” Sanji sighs and then returns his gaze to Zoro, blowing his hair out of his eyes a little.

“They’re big monsters, just stories for kids really. They have-- skin, breathe fire and they can fly with big leathery--. Oh and they have these big claws.” Sanji says, adding in plenty of words that Zoro doesn’t know, but Robin fills him in with ‘scaly’ and ‘wings’.

“I thought you two didn’t have trouble talking to each other any more.” Luffy says, looking between all of them and scratching his head thoughtfully.

“This isn’t a normal conversation Luffy. I’ve never needed to talk about monsters before.” Zoro says.

What he doesn’t say is that he has talked about monsters with Sanji before, but just the kind that he’s related to. Given the reason for their sudden exit from the country he figures it would be smarter to not bring that up again right now. Or perhaps never if Sanji doesn’t want to talk about it.

“Wait, monsters? Are we going to get to fight monsters? THAT WOULD BE SO COOL!” Luffy exclaims lighting up in excitement, Ace looks similarly excited and a little more literally lit up about it.

“They’re not real, they’re children’s stories!” Sanji sighs in exasperation.

“Well how big are these things? And how do you say their name again?” He asks Sanji.

“Drah-gon.” Sanji says slowly and Zoro repeats it back. He and Sanji go back and forth until Zoro has it down. Dragon.

“So how big are dragon?” He asks, repeating his question in Baratian.

“Dragons, plural. And I don’t know because they’re not real!” Sanji groans and nudges his horse into moving again, getting the others going to keep up with him.

“That’s not totally true bro, I mean there are stories, they say how big they are. They’re about, what… ten metres tall, but then you’ve got neck height and wings so it’s hard to say.” Franky muses. Zoro frowns, he doesn’t know what a metre is, but it’s got to just be a dumb name for feet, right? Ten feet tall isn’t that big at all. Fire or not they can all take something like out easily.

“But some of the legends say that they can eat whole families in one bite, including the house they’re in!” Usopp whimpers.

“Maybe there’s different species or they change with age.” Franky muses. Okay, something that could swallow a house whole is big. Surely this can’t be right.

“They AREN’T real!” Sanji yells from the front.

“I can see it up there, alright? That bit in the mountain that looks like a waterfall is Dragon’s Pass. It’s called that for two reasons. One because that’s a cool name and it’s an old fantasy tale and two… because… well, Nami that’s the route you took to get here, right?” Sanji asks, looking at their navigator.

“Yes, I can see why people don’t take it, if the weather changes when you’re up there you would be flooded out in an instant. The rocks just redirect water and even a small rainstorm turns the pass into a raging river. Mountain weather is unpredictable for most people so it’s basically impossible for people who aren’t as skilled as me.” Nami says with her usual amount of modesty. Which is none at all. If she wasn’t actually that good then he’d berate her more for it but in all honesty when it came to navigating and weather well, she was magic.

“Clearly you are a wonderful amazing woman with the most magnificent mind to be able to do that!” Sanji says with a swoon that nearly makes him fall off of his horse.

Zoro groans. He loves his husband dearly but when it comes to women he’s a total sucker and a shameless flirt and flatterer. If he didn’t know that Sanji was as faithful a man as Zoro’s own blades are to him it might annoy or upset him. As it is Sanji’s behaviour just makes him despair or sometimes cringe in second hand embarrassment.

“But, my point was that it is possible, although barely, to get into Baratie that way and claiming that there’s a terrifying monster in that part of the mountain usually keeps people away. But it’s not real.” the blond insists.

“So it’s a lie then.” Kaku says without looking at Sanji. Zoro sees his husband flinch, he knows how bad lies are to them.

“No, it’s not like I called it that. It’s just what must have happened.” Sanji answers hastily.

“In either case it’s not this drag-gon that we need to worry about. We need to set up camp around that lake and when day breaks the water will have completely run off of the mountain. Then we need to ascend the mountain pass and get down the other side before the weather changes again.” Nami says smartly.

“Whatever you say Nami, that’s what we’ll do.” Zoro says with a resigned shrug. Not only is arguing with Nami mostly pointless but on this topic she’s infallible.

“You say the sweetest things Zoro, you should say it more.” Nami purrs, literally bending over backwards in her saddle to look at him upside down with a smug grin on her fine features.

Despite the mountain looking pretty close it still takes them a good four hours to get there, leaving them only an hour or so until sundown. When they arrive at the shore of the large lake, scale lake as Sanji informs him, he actually has to stand there for a moment or two in wonder.

The is a huge rushing mass of water that is somewhere between a steep river and a waterfall. It crashes violently between rocks, spraying foam and a fine mist in the air that the wind occasionally pushes their way in a fine touch of water to the skin. The raging water carves its way through a good half a mile of land before emptying into the lake that they’re at now. Nami instructs them to set up camp a good distance from the like and Zoro can see why, with that much water rushing into the lake it will eventually rise and rise. They really don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night under several feet of water.

The mountains themselves are huge, almost ridiculously vertical in places, like a column of rock was just dropped straight from the sky into the earth. In other places they look more normal, steep but not so much that it can’t be hiked carefully. With the exception of the waterfall that promises to be a path there would be no way that any kind of invading force could get into Baratie. Maybe several skilled mountaineers but that’s not an invasion.

This mountain range brackets Baratie off from every other country on the continent. He had thought that the only way to get to Baratie is by water, it’s how he’d got here. He’d travelled on horseback all the way north until he got to Drum Kingdom, a place so cold that he’d rather die than go back there and then cross the sea for two days to get to the northernmost part of Baratie.

He had hated the entire journey to Baratie, it was a whole month of travel and silent loathing directed at his soon to be husband. Whenever the mountain range was in sight they just reminded him of the looming nature of his fate. He’d never pictured being on the other side of them with a husband that he loves and feeling almost a little sad about leaving. These mountains protect Baratie and they work well. Batarians are master sailors, even if they don’t have the warfleet that Zoro is itching to encourage them to make. In the past people found it nigh impossible to invade Baratie via the ocean as Baratian ships were quicker and more advanced. Baratie wasn’t an aggressive nation and their mountains made them feel secure, they had no intention of ever invading anywhere else and were content to just leave everyone else alone as long as everyone else did the same. However, the rest of the world doesn’t work like that and so while Baratie was peacefully staying as it was other countries were advancing their warfare and Baratian ships were starting to be outpaced and outgunned.

People have tried to invade Baratie before with some measure of success. Armies have landed and taken over large areas of land. They had thought that they’d won and that they had subjugated the local people. They had been wrong though. Apparently Baratians are aware that they are not adept as full on warfare and so they fought smart. Regular citizens would destroy anything of the enemy’s that they could get their hands on. Weapons, supplies and even ambush tactics against patrolling conquerors. With their work done they would blend seamlessly back into bakers, farmers and innkeepers. No one would be able to point to any one particular group and accuse them. Eventually the invaders figured that Baratie was more trouble than it was worth and left in their suddenly disarmed ships.

None of that was a safe or good way to protect a kingdom though and over the last hundred years or so it had cost the country dearly. Hell, the innkeeper from last night may well have been around the last time someone invaded and perhaps stabbed an unaware general in the chest.

Baratians had fight in their blood but no real means to use it and no real wish to be aggressive either, opting instead for sheer passivity. It left them so painfully open to attack that it hurts Zoro to think about it. That is going to change though, it was the reason for their marriage after all. Shimotsuki would protect Baratie against war and show them how to do it themselves and Baratie would keep Shimotsuki fed and healthy. On paper it sounded good and Zoro had agreed to it for those reasons. But he’s in love with Sanji and though the weather of this country makes him despair he’s fallen for it as well. For all it’s naivete and flaws it is beautiful in a mysterious kind of way, not unlike its prince. He will protect Baratie with everything he has.

“Oi, quit standing there with your brain out.” Sanji says, hip-checking him and jolting Zoro from his thoughts.

“You’re all making camp so I’m going to go and make us food. I’m sure that I can get us some great freshwater fish from this lake.” Sanji says, holding a smaller bag under one arm. Sanji turns and heads off and Zoro opens his mouth to say something about not going somewhere alone until he sees Usopp scampering after him, bragging about his fishing prowess. It’s not an insult against Sanji that he doesn’t want him to be alone but it’s better to be prepared. Given the choice of having someone with you to make any attempted attack less likely and not need it or be alone and have someone kill you because you’re separated from your friends and nakama well, it’s an obvious choice.

They set up four tents of equal and large size. One for Robin and Nami that also houses a lot of their equipment, one for him and Sanji and two more for the rest of their party to split into as they wish. And by the time that they’ve set up the tents, unpacked everything they need and fed the horses Sanji is already gutting fish and sitting by a fire that Usopp is coaxing into life.

He lingers for a few seconds as Sanji’s hands fly through his works, his knife precise and his cuts flawless. He has a rather shameless moment of fantasy where he wonders what Sanji would be like if he armed himself with knives as a backup or short range weapon. He knows in his heart that it won’t happen though. He suspects that for Sanji knives are cooking tools only and on top of that he knows just how flexible Sanji can be, there’s barely any range where he couldn’t use his legs but could use a knife. Still, he would be deadly with it.

He walks over to Sanji at a leisurely pace and leans down to see what he’s doing. By now the fish are all gutted and Sanji’s in the process of doing something complicated with spices that Zoro didn’t even know that he had brought along, not that he’s surprised by it. In his peripheral vision he sees Sanji turn a little and he gets the lightest of kisses pressed against his cheekbone. It makes his heart thump hard in his chest because they’ve kissed before in passion and excitement but this kind of casual affection is new, sweet rather than hot and somehow that feels better, deeper perhaps. He looks at Sanji and can’t help but see the red flush high on his cheeks and the tension in his neck and his jaw tell Zoro that Sanji is probably silently berating himself for showing affection like that. Perhaps he thinks that Tsukians don’t do things like this. Zoro has never been happier before to prove him wrong, he comes closer and kisses Sanji back, just at his hairline and he’s close enough to hear the little breathy sigh that it gets him.

“I should probably go do something useful with the horses.” He sighs, looking over at Ace trying to literally drag a horse to water to make it drink with little success. Apparently proverbs are true sometimes.

“Yeah, go be useful you idiot.” Sanji snorts and slaps his wrist with a grin on his face.

He heads over to Ace who is trying to wrangle Sanji’s horse to the edge of the lake but it’s not cooperating at all. He’s always been very good with animals so when he runs his hand over the velvety grey white nose of the horse it huffs calmly against his skin.

“Good luck with her.” Ace says, glaring at the horse like it has personally offended him. Zoro can’t help but wonder how long Ace has actually been trying to do it.

“She’s not so bad, aside from the colour.” Zoro sighs, running his hand through her white mane. He wonders if he should try to get Sanji out of the habit of choosing white as a colour so much or whether it’s just something that Sanji is going to always do. He’s not sure that he minds either way.

Ace returns with several of their group’s considerably more cooperative horses to the edge of the lake who drink without fuss. Sanji’s regards the other horses with a measure of disdain and then joins them. He and Ace go to retrieve the last of the horses with Franky and Luffy having just recently completely unloaded and removed all of their tack but the reigns.

“So, you and Sanji huh? It’s really love then?” Ace asks, his eyes running over Zoro’s arms and the marks on them. He looks down at the delicate crosshatching and whorls in the patterns and nods.

“Yeah, yeah it is.” He answers, feeling lucky again above all else.

“You know lots of people aren’t happy about this back home, it looks like it’s not much different here.” Ace remarks, keeping a careful eye on Zoro. Zoro doesn’t look directly at Ace but lets his mind work and chooses his next word carefully.

“People like Whitebeard?” He asks, now watching Ace very carefully indeed. He likes Ace plenty, he’s his nakama’s brother and at least a friends to him if not a little more. Even so he isn’t fully nakama and his loyalties lie with his declared father, Whitebeard.

“I gotta admit, he didn’t like the idea of you being sold off for our security. Said that people who give up freedom for safety don’t deserve either. He seemed to change his mind a bit when you agreed yourself and it wasn’t just a deal the King made.” Ace says and Zoro feels his back tense up.

“So you’re here to see if… what? If I’ve sold myself and Shimotsuki out?” He asks carefully but feeling a dark anger rise up without him.

“Hah, what? No! I know he’ll be way happier when I tell him that it actually is going well with you two.” Ace laughs loudly and Zoro relaxes ever so slightly, he sometimes does wonder how much of Ace’s goofiness is real and how much is pretend. With Luffy he’s genuine in both, he can just switch quickly from one to the other. At least right now Ace seems sincere.

“You said that you didn’t know why Whitebeard sent you along.” Zoro states, though it’s more of a question.

“I didn’t lie Zoro. I really don’t know. Maybe he is just fishing for information about how you two get on, but he didn’t ask me to do that. Maybe it’s something that’s completely different entirely. He said that I’d just know what it it was if it came up.” The other man answers him back, just as seriously. Zoro hasn’t accused him of lying outright but he’d been close. It’s not something he would normally do, he likes Ace after all, but with Sanji on the line he’s willing to push it.

“Hah, could he have been any less specific?” Zoro laughs. He doesn’t feel all of the humour but he does feel some. He can relate a little at least, his own father is often just as unhelpful with his orders. Usually it’s in an effort to make him grow as a person or as a warrior but now and again he suspects that it’s just because his father finds it amusing.

“Well, whatever, if I find out what I have to do or discover then I do, if I don’t I don’t.” Ace says with a shrug and a grin and suddenly he has the same relaxed nature as Luffy. Either way Zoro can’t argue with that and he doesn’t have much else to say on the matter, his friends and his nakama are usually okay with him lapsing into silence, or even into sleep. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care or isn’t paying attention, well maybe a little less attention when he’s asleep, he just doesn’t feel the need to fill the air with meaningless chatter. Sanji’s people seem to be all about meaningless chatter. Whenever two or more people were together in the palace it was endless talking. Before he could understand most of it he had thought that it must be something important but no, they talked about anything. The amount of time they spent talking about the goddamned weather, that had been something he thought he would have got a break from with being away from Nami!

One again though, Sanji isn’t like that. He and the King didn’t seem to do small talk. When they did talk it seemed to be about business of one kind or another, either royal business or things with the kitchen. Before he had assumed that the two of them weren’t close but the way he had heard them say goodbye told a entirely different story.

“Hey, those two seem to be getting along better. Kaku kept looking like someone was feeding him lemons when the topic of Sanji came up, when he thought no one was looking anyway.” Ace says, and points to the two of them.

Zoro looks around to see Sanji and Kaku at the fireside. Sanji is sat down on a log as he was before, doing something complicated with a pot over the fire. Kaku is talking with him and Zoro finds himself smiling when Kaku laughs brightly and he sees Sanji’s shoulders shake in what he knows to be sniggering laughter. Some kind of weight that he didn’t even know that he’d been carrying eases a little. Sanji of course had every right to challenge Kaku to that duel and every right to throw his ample skill in and win. All of that is true but it’s not the best way to make people like you. Sanji had been worried about being isolated in Shimotsuki and Kaku’s reaction to him had been frosty at best, so it feels good to see them getting on. Kaku seems to sense Zoro’s eyes on them and looks up and breaks into an even wider smile.

“Yeah, it is better.” Zoro agrees with a nod and a smile.

Sanji somehow made something amazing out of fish, rice and some kind of wild vegetables and herbs. He served it all to them with a sauce that he had somehow pulled out of thin air and and it all tastes just as good as the kind of food Sanji makes in the palace. He can’t help but feel better for eating it, staying at the inn last night had been good but returning to Sanji’s cooking is far better. He dearly hopes that he can get the cooks in the castle to let Sanji in. Surely when they see and hear how good he is they’ll welcome him with awe and open arms.

Night falls fully and dinner is cleaned up, Luffy begs for more and Nami flings him inside one of the knight’s tents by his rubbery cheek and everyone turns into bed. If it hadn’t been for last night he would be far more unnerved at seeing Sanji tugging the loose fitting sleeping clothes down over his lean and pale chest. The sight of the blond sliding under the covers of their travel bed would have put him ill at ease and full of concern that he’d do something culturally dumb. After last night though the whole thing feels normal. How can one night make something so previously built up in his mind seem so natural?

He settles down onto the waterproofed floor of the tent and starts to relax his muscles and clear his mind. He hears Sanji move and so isn’t entirely surprised when two arms snake around his waist and a sharp chin rests on his shoulder.

“Do you have to do that now?” Sanji asks him.

“Yes.” he replies, not opening his eyes and trying to focus on his centre and not Sanji’s hands on his body.

“Well could you do it in bed? I’m cold and you’re warm.” Sanji wheedles. Zoro squeezes his eyes shut and tries to focus a little harder, which is entirely the wrong thing to do of course. It’s not supposed to require focus, it’s supposed to be effortless.

“Just wait five minutes. Shouldn’t you be writing anyway?” He reasons, hoping that Sanji will remember his own activity and leave him be. He supposes that Sanji’s writing might be reflective for him in the same way that Zoro’s own meditation is for him.

“Already did it when I was cooking, I had a little downtime before I could cook the rice.” Sanji answers with a shrug. He doesn’t pester him any more though as he seemingly gets the idea. Instead Zoro hears the soft thud of him falling back on their rather sparse and meagre travel bed. There’s only so much that they can get the riderless horse and the others to carry after all.

He sinks into his meditation pretty easily after that and once the sense of rightness and calm settles over him like a second skin he pulls back gently into the real world and turns to see Sanji snuggled under covers with his eyes shut. Zoro moves, hoping to get into bed without waking him but Sanji’s eyes open right away.

“That was a long five minutes.” Sanji mumbles and tugs Zoro in by the arm. He frowns, it didn’t feel too long but it can’t have been too much longer. Maybe Sanji just meant that it felt long for him? Stupid nuances of Baratian.

He pulls the blanket up over both of them and Sanji settles against his chest just as he had done the night before. The blond breathes deeply and then sighs out in either happiness or relaxation. Between the even flow of Sanji’s breath across his chest, the slow movement of Sanji’s back against his hands as he breathes and his meditation he finds himself falling into sleep almost immediately.

If the strangled scream is what rips him from sleep then it’s the feeling of Sanji scrambling across his legs that launches him into full adrenaline filled wakefulness. He whirls to his feet and unsheathes his swords, two in his left and one in his right. He turns to Sanji but the blond is just crouched on the floor saying nothing.

Zoro darts outside, jamming the hilt of his white sword between his teeth and staring out into the darkness. He turns, peering out around them and scanning every tree, every shadow for a trace of someone out there that might have hurt Sanji or tripped his senses into scaring him. He sees nothing.

He takes the sword from his mouth and ducks back into the tent, shifting all three to his right hand.

“Sanji, what is it?” He asks as he kneels down next to the other man.

Sanji just gives some strangled high pitched noise for an answer and shakes his head. Sanji is crouched, feet flat on the floor, knees up to his chest and pitched forward slightly. His hands are tangled so tightly in his blond hair that he looks like he might just pull it out. The heels of his palms are pressed against his eyes and he’s breathing like he’s sprinted so far and so fast that he’s collapsed, he’s dragging in air so fast and shakily and breathing it out through clenched teeth that make it hiss slightly.

“Sanji, what’s wrong?” he asks again. When he puts his hand on Sanji’s shoulder he makes a startled and almost hurt sound that makes Zoro rip his hand back. Is Sanji injured? He can’t see anything but he’s not behaving like he has a chest wound, even if he did who could have given it to him? Sanji’s chest was pressed against his side wasn’t it? There’s no one else out there.

Someone bursts into the tent and Zoro is on his feet in a whirl of blades before he recognises that it’s Usopp.

“Oh shit, Sanji.” Usopp breathes and rushes over to Sanji, skidding to a halt on his knees before the prince.

“What’s wrong?” Zoro asks, worry clawing at his insides. Franky leans in through the tent door and spots what’s going on.

“Oh, one of these. I’ll keep the others away Usopp.” Franky notes in his deep voice and, with a nod, pulls himself outside the tent and stands guard outside.

“Sanji, Sanji listen to me. Breathe a little slower.” Usopp says slowly and calmly.

“Usopp! Tell me what’s wrong!” Zoro demands but he drops the volume when he sees Sanji flinch.

“It’s… just let me fix it first. Have you got food here, water? Food would be better.” Usopp answers, switching to Tsukian and Sanji doesn’t even react to the change.

“I- uh, we have water. Let me get it. Is he okay?” he asks, turning around and sheathing his swords in their scabbards by his bed and grabbing for the skein of water sat close by.

“No, we might not be able to go anywhere today, this one seems pretty bad. Swap with me, I need to look for food. Try to get him to drink some of that.” Usopp says, standing up and moving away from Sanji.

Zoro kneels and takes his place, putting his hand gently onto Sanji’s back. He’s still breathing so fast and Zoro can feel the cold and sweat slicked touch of his skin under his hand.

“Sanji, I’ve got water.” Zoro says, biting the cork out of it and offering it to Sanji. No matter how close to waves it Sanji or repeats what he said Sanji doesn’t even give any indication that he heard him at all. Usopp is scrambling around their tent, pulling his way through Sanji’s things. He picks up Sanji’s clothes to move them out of the way but pauses with Sanji’s cloak in his hand.

“Zeff! Thank god!” Usopp says in relief. He jams his hand into a pocket in the cloak and pulls out a wrapped up bundle of paper, the same one that Sanji had the morning that they left, it’s whatever Zeff gaze him that made Sanji cry in joy. Usopp rips at the string and pulls back the paper. He takes out a block of something that looks like chocolate and dashes back in front of Sanji.

“Sanji he-” Usopp only gets part way through his word before Sanji’s hands snatch whatever Usopp has. His movement is so fast that Zoro almost doesn’t see it. Sanji crams whatever it is in his mouth and Usopp sighs a little in relief.

“Sit back. Eat that slower or you’ll hurl.” Usopp orders him, pushing Sanji backwards until the blond falls into an almost cross legged posture. Sanji’s hair is a mess and the one eye that Zoro can see is wild with fear and some intensity that almost frightens Zoro to see.

“Water?” Zoro offers weakly and Sanji’s eyes track to the skein of water in Zoro’s hand. Sanji swallows thickly and reaches for it. Zoro passes it to him and Sanji knocks it back so fast that a small stream of it escapes the corner of his mouth and runs down his jaw.

“Slower.” Usopp reminds him and Zoro takes the water back.

“Sanji, what’s wrong?” Zoro asks again, seeing as Sanji is reacting to things a bit more now.

“Didn’t- did- want you to see this.” Sanji manages, his words sounding off and almost garbled, the Baratian distorted by the shaking breaths he makes.

“See what? I still don’t know what’s wrong.” He points out. He looks to Usopp but the man suddenly looks firmly at Sanji and deliberately avoids looking at Zoro. No, Usopp knows but whatever this is he’s not going to tell Zoro if Sanji doesn’t want him to. Usopp is Sanji’s nakama, not his, and where his loyalties lie in this matter are clear.

Maybe it’s time to start guessing.

“Did it wake you up?” He asks, figuring it’s a good place to start from. Sanji nods weakly and bites into whatever the block of stuff that Usopp gave him is. Whatever it is it smells overpoweringly of mint.

“Okay. Was it a dream or something?” He moves on.

“Or something.” Sanji says with a hollow laugh and drinks again.

Zoro runs that answer through in his brain for a moment. Not a dream but… like it?

“A... fuck I don’t know the word. Usopp, what’s the Baratian for memory?” He asks, switching between them. Usopp answers, filling the word in and Sanji nods.

“I’ll be outside if you need me.” Usopp says quietly and excuses himself.

Zoro looks back at Sanji, he’s breathing less hard and fast now but it’s still too much of both for Zoro to be happy. He contemplates Usopp’s word and Sanji’s confirmation. A memory was what woke him and it was enough to send him into a state this panicked, and it it sheer panic that he can recognise it as now.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess that given the subject that made them leave Baratie earlier that Sanji’s dreamed memory may well be about the loss of his mother, but it’s never good to assume if there’s an option to know.

“A memory of your mother or something else?” He asks carefully, not wanting to remind him more of it but needing to know, if Sanji will let him of course.

“Hah, same time, different memory. How selfish is that? I’m concerned with what happened to me instead of her, that’s what’s affecting me. Pathetic.” Sanji hisses angrily and bitterly at himself.

He knows that the Queen died in that shipwreck, whether accidentally or not is apparently unknown, but the point is that the ship sank. He knows that Sanji and Zeff were rescued but how or when he doesn’t know. Nearly drowning could traumatise a child, that could be the kind of thing that would wake Sanji in fear. He doesn’t want to press him for details if Sanji is just starting to come back to himself.

“Fuck, I wish you weren’t here Zoro.” Sanji says bitterly and those words sting him deeply. Does… does Sanji not trust him?

“Do you want me to go?” He asks, trying to keep his voice normal and keep the hurt out of it but it’s hard. Why would Sanji make him go? He loves him, shouldn’t he stay?

“What’s the point? You’ve already seen.” Sanji mutters unhappily and shoves the last of whatever that mint scented thing was into his mouth.

“Tsukians find strength attractive and here I am, having a fucking- right in front of you over something that happened more than half a lifetime ago. You must be so happy to be married to me.” Sanji growls at himself, words that he doesn’t know or can’t recognize slipping into his speech.

“I am always happy to be married to you, don’t say shit like that.” Zoro argues harshly but in contrast to his words he leans in and kisses Sanji’s temple, running a hand through his hair and smoothing down some of the tangles.

“But I’m weak.” Sanji says unhappily.

Zoro sighs and sits back. Sanji is far from weak but he clearly can’t see that right now.

“The King, Dracule Mihawk, my father gave me this.” Zoro says, pulling his shirt off and running his fingers over the scar that goes from shoulder to hip.

“I had to duel him, remember? I got this and nearly died. The wound was so deep that it took ages to heal and I wasn’t the best patient. I mostly stitched it up myself. A doctor started it but every time I ripped it open I fixed it myself. That’s why it looks so bad.” He explains, his fingers running along the ridges of the scar and feeling the way that he can dip his fingers inside it in places.

“That fight took all of my strength and I lost, but I’m still here. I’m still alive. Even so, sometimes I’ll pull at it and it’ll hurt. When it’s really cold it stings and aches like there’s salt rubbed in it.” He explains, dropping his hand.

“Pain from an old injury isn’t weakness.” He asserts, looking Sanji straight in the eye.

“But that’s pain in your body.” Sanji points out.

“I… I don’t think I understood that. All pain is in your body. Your head and your heart are part of your body. You still have scars even if you can’t point at them. What difference does it make?” He frowns. Sanji doesn’t answer though and he’s still shaking so badly and breathing so erratically. He wants to help but fuck if he knows how. If he feels like shit he just-

“Fight me.” Zoro says firmly.

Sanji looks up at Zoro with a genuinely startled and baffled look.

“What?” He says and even his voice sounds shaky.

“Fight me. You feel all…” Zoro trails off, trying to think of the right words and more importantly the right words that he knows in Sanji’s language or Sanji knows in his. None come to mind so he just gestures to Sanji as a whole.

“So do something with it. Fight me. Come on.” He insists, catching Sanji’s hand and hauling him to his feet.

“Oh God don’t, I feel sick.” Sanji complains with a shudder and Zoro pauses. He comes a little closer to Sanji and rubs halfway down his back in small circles, hoping to make him feel a little less nauseous.

“It’s because you’re not doing anything with it. Come outside and fight me, that way you don’t have to worry about breaking anything.” He reasons.

“I don’t want to fight you like I did with Kaku... and I’m hardly in good enough… good enough condition to be a challenge for a spar.” The blonde says, panting in his sentence and making it sound odd.

“So I’ll leave my swords. Skin to skin is better anyway. Just trust me.” He insists and that at least makes Sanji look properly at him.

“Trust you?” Sanji repeats. It doesn’t sound like a mocking statement, it sounds more like Sanji is verbally trying the idea out.

“Trust me.” Zoro agrees and pulls Sanji outside the tent.

Franky gives them an odd look but moves from the door of their tent to the area where the knight’s tents are set up, presumably to continue his position in protecting Sanji from being seen like this. Usopp is there too and he really should talk to Sanji and Franky about what they are but now isn’t the time. What’s more telling though is that this seems to happen often enough for both men to know about it and have plans about how to deal with it.

He takes Sanji relatively close to the water’s edge and looks around to make sure that neither of them are likely to trip over anything and hurt themselves. Riding with a sprained wrist or ankle really sucks and he’d rather avoid it if he can.

“After you.” He offers with the kind of grin that he knows rubs Sanji the wrong way, and sure enough the blond looks irritated.

“This is stupid.” Sanji mutters, just loud enough for Zoro to hear though he probably wasn’t meant to.

Sanji rubs his hands on his face and then through his hair, treating Zoro to a disappointingly unlit second or two of seeing Sanji’s whole face at once. He wishes it was lighter out, he could have really seen him then. Sanji walks a little closer to Zoro and now he can see that Sanji has changed. He can still hear the shaky breathing and see how his fists are clenched, but his feet at least are right. His feet are moving lightly and grounded, rolling on the edges of his feet with his arches tight and his toes and the front of his foot bearing the most weight for the majority of the time.

Sanji gets close enough for Zoro to be in Sanji’s range and he has to actively suppress the instinct to move right out of it. He’s unarmed and he’s sparring with Sanji who fights purely unarmed, at least in this Sanji almost certainly outclasses him. Sanji sighs in resignation and he shifts his weight, quickly but slow by Sanji’s standards, and flicks a kick out at Zoro. He turns and parries Sanji’s kick away with his arm and falls into his own fighting stance for being unarmed.

“My turn.” He purrs and relishes the way that Sanji jolts a little and adjusts his stance in alarm.

Zoro swings for him, a little slow but not too much. A punch that could have got Sanji right in the chest instead catches nothing more than air and he only just manages to move his other arm low enough to block the knee to his stomach. He’s not quick enough to catch the way that deflected knee attack turns into a flick and the way that Sanji’s shin connects with Zoro’s ribs actually hurts.

He darts back and sees that although Sanji is still breathing unevenly he seems to be more focused on the fight than whatever terrible thing is in his head. Sanji leaps for him and pivots on one foot, lashing out and catching nothing but air. He ducks close but Sanji twists with his missed kick and plants that leg on the floor instead, whirling around with his previously grounded leg to attack. He’s lost a lot of his momentum with the landing though and Zoro is able to dash close and catch Sanji’s leg under his arm. He’s got Sanji’s shin locked into his underarm and his hand is wrapped right around the iron muscles of Sanji’s calf. The fact that Sanji doesn’t look concerned about this should have given him pause but he doesn’t realise that something is wrong until Sanji throws himself upwards, shoving his weight through his trapped leg. He wraps the other around Zoro’s neck and flings his own body weight back towards the ground. Sanji’s spine flexes and bends in a way that it shouldn't be able to and between that flexibility and the strength of all of his muscles from his abs down to his calves he flips Zoro’s world around. He has a split second when he’s in the air with Sanji’s leg still wrapped around him. He can see Sanji’s hands planted onto the mud of the floor, he can see the arch of his back and the strength in his movement. There is a fleeting moment of appreciation before his back is slammed into the ground so hard that every last bit of breath is forced out of him, leaving him gasping on the floor. Sanji bounces away and laughs. There’s a slightly hysterical and on edge sound to it that Zoro still doesn’t like but it’s an improvement on curled up and shaking on the floor of the tent.

“Do I have to tell you?” Sanji asks from behind him. Zoro has a moment when he’s trying to get air back into his lungs that his considers that Sanji probably isn’t leading him into some kind of mocking insult but is probably asking about whatever the memory was that drove him into a very bad place.

“Do you want to?” He wheezes and sits up, the damp mud at the edge of the lake rising up between his fingers and he’s sure that his clothes are absolutely covered in mud.

Sanji is glaring out at the water of the lake like it personally offended him and he only stops it when Zoro swings a low kick out at him. He must have been pretty absorbed in it because he only manages to get one leg out of the way and ends up flailing a little bit.

“Your nakama know what happened, so you don’t have to.” He points out.

“Is that bad?” Sanji asks with a frown and a careful step into Zoro’s range.

“Who cares?” Zoro snorts and tackles Sanji to the ground before the blond can throw that kick that he was obviously winding up for.

“I care!” Sanji hisses and knees Zoro in the side.

“Tell me now, later, whenever or never. It doesn’t matter.” He retorts and pins Sanji’s knee to the ground with his hand, he’s not letting him knee him twice. Sanji struggles to free it but Zoro is determined not to let him.

He has no idea how Sanji does it, it shouldn’t be physically possible but when he’s focused on pinning Sanji’s left knee down Sanji somehow gets his right foot into Zoro’s shoulder in a level of flexibility that it completely mind ruining. Sanji kicks and topples Zoro but he doesn’t let go and so the two of them just roll towards the water. He comes out on top and he’s not going to let Sanji do that again and so he just presses his whole body against Sanji’s.

Sanji gasps against Zoro’s neck and for a moment he worries that maybe he pushed Sanji too hard there when he pinned him but he quickly discards that notion because anyone who has seen Sanji fight will also conclude that Sanji doesn’t have tendons that can be overstretched. All the same he leans up a little and looks down at the other man. It’s dark and they’re both wet and covered in dirt and stains in their clothes that may never come out and maybe it’s not the best time but Zoro kisses him because how can he not. Sanji kisses him back but he breaks it off pretty quickly.

“Everything hurts and I’m covered in mud.” Sanji complains, dropping his head back on the ground below him and Zoro can feel all of Sanji relax against him.

“Better than before though?” Zoro asks with a smug grin because of course Sanji does.

“You’re awful, now move it.” Sanji sighs and Zoro obliges him. He doesn’t answer Zoro’s question but he can still see the small traces of a smile that Sanji is trying to suppress so he knows full well that he’s right.

Sanji stands up and sighs, flicking his hands over his clothes to try to get the worst of the dirt off but it’s no use. The dirt is either ground deeply into the fabric or is, in fact, mud. The blond rubs the back of his hair and looks over at the water. It’s only when Sanji turns and starts walking into the water that he realises just how dumb he’s being.

“What are you doing?!” He yells in alarm, rushing to the water’s edge and shuddering at the cold water lapping at his toes.

“Quit yelling Zoro, you’ll wake everyone up.” Sanji scolds him and Zoro glares, if their fight didn’t wake the others then nothing will. He looks over and sees that even Franky and Usopp have gone inside again and left the two of them to it, which is sweet but he could really use more sensible voices other than his, like say.. Sanji’s nakama to talk him out of this horrible decision.

“The water is ice cold, you’ll freeze!” He points out, gesturing to the snow capped mountains that the water has come from.

“It’s not so bad.” Sanji says, just at mid thigh level in the icy water.

He hears Sanji gasp a shuddering breath and then he dives into the ice cold water. Zoro has heard of this kind of thing happening before, someone gets into water that is freezing or below and they go into shock and die. He’s never seen it happen but he’s sure that this water is that cold, it’s probably just the movement of the waterfall that’s stopping it from icing. Although the waterfall has stopped now, but still! He rushes into shin depth of water but then Sanji surfaces.

“Wow, that is-!” Sanji exclaims and Zoro doesn’t know that last word but he’s sure it means something like ‘so cold it will kill me!’

Zoro dashes in faster, ignoring the way that the water is so cold it hurts his skin. Sanji dips under the water and Zoro lunges for him but before he can pull the surely drowning Sanji to the surface the other man comes up on his own.

“That’s better.” Sanji remarks casually as he scrubs the back of his head, shaking out his hair.

“Are- are you- are you CRAZY?!” Zoro demands, his words altered by his shivering.

“Oh, I forgot that you’re a wuss with cold. I’m sorry.” Sanji says entirely insincerely and leans forward and presses and icy kiss on Zoro’s cheek.

“I- I am not! I we-ent through Dru-Drum to get to you!” Zoro asks and sees Sanji scrubbing his hands over himself. Oh, he got into the water to clean himself off. Zoro does the same, hoping that at least the friction will make him slightly warmer.

“Are we going back there on the way back to Shimotsuki? I’m pretty sure that this pass is below Drum. Or it might only just be in it, I’m not sure.” Sanji muses and hums in thoughtfulness.

“I can- cannot think of an-anything that would make me willingly g-go back into that ice hell.” He snarls.

“Suit yourself, I hear it’s kind of beautiful.” Sanji says with a shrug and twists in the water to get the back of his hair under the water only he keeps himself steady by wrapping one leg loosely around Zoro’s. Sanji floats in the water and strips his shirt off, his pale skin glowing completely white in the light. Zoro does the same bitterly thinking that this would be a million times better if it wasn’t so goddamn cold that he can barely stand to come into contact with Sanji’s icy skin right now, much less do anything more with him.

He and Sanji scrub their clothes off in almost complete darkness before putting them back on and wading out of the water. Sanji gingerly tiptoes to their tent and leans in it before leaning back out.

“Actually, you go first. Get your clothes off and pass them to me, then dry off and get into something clean and warm.” Sanji says, waving a hand in the direction of the tent and Zoro is not going to argue with him on this. He gets in the tent as fast as is humanly possible and rips off his cold, wet and now clean clothes. He curses over and over, grabbing a towel out of a bag and wrapping it around himself.

“Clothes, Zoro.” Sanji reminds him from outside the tent.

Shuddering and shaking Zoro grabs the icy garments up off of the floor and shoves them through the flap of the tent. He hears an amused chuckle and he clothes are taken from him.

Zoro dries himself off roughly and tugs on clean underwear and trousers then a shirt and also another shirt and then a thick leather and wool overshirt that he had brought with him the first time in order to be prepared for travelling through Drum. He pulls a hat on over his head and he’s still shaking.

“Oh God, you are the dumbest thing to come out of the sea!” Sanji cackles and Zoro wants to ask him what the hell that means but then his mind catches up to see that Sanji is just in a towel around his waist. At some point in Zoro’s frantic dressing he must have missed a naked Sanji come into the tent and grab a towel of his own. In fairness he is still very cold.

Sanji goes to his own bag and pulls out underwear. He does this little shimmy and somehow when he takes his towel off he’s wearing them already. He dries himself off for a bit and then he pauses, looking at Zoro.

“Hey, what’re you staring at?” Sanji demands and Zoro notices that his cheeks are going red and Zoro doesn’t think that it’s because he’s cold.

“How can you look that good and expect me not to when you’re right there? And you didn’t say that I couldn’t.” He points out and Sanji stares at him for a moment, his cheeks going redder.

“You have no right to be that smooth when you’re wearing a hat with ear flaps.” Sanji mutters, ducking his head and avoiding Zoro’s eyes.

“Smooth? But I’m covered in clothes, I’m not smooth.” Zoro frowns in confusion.

“Ugh, no. It means a different thing in this context.” Sanji answers, bending over to dry off his calves in a perfectly flexible forward bend. Zoro is sure that he’s supposed to be complaining about something, Sanji’s language maybe, but he’s seen how deadly that flexibility can be and he can’t look away. He can still feel Sanji’s legs on him, flipping him roughly and mercilessly onto the ground and he swallows thickly just thinking about it. Sanji is so beautiful and so deadly.

“Quit staring.” Sanji mumbles and that at least makes Zoro turn the other way. If Sanji isn’t giving him permission to look then he won’t, but he can’t do anything to stop the vision of that burning behind his eyes.

“Do you really need the hat?” Sanji asks after a little bit, walking around Zoro clothed in new clothes for sleeping in.

“I’m still freezing.” he protests.

“Idiot.” Sanji snickers and drags him towards the bed and down into it.

Zoro is hovering above Sanji’s thigh with his hands on the bed on either side of Sanji’s chest. He can see the edge of Sanji’s waves where his shirtsleeve has ridden up slightly. He stares down at Sanji and remembers all that Usopp told him about how everything has to be perfect for Sanji. He’s not going to bite Sanji and invite him to anything when he doesn’t feel that it’s right, he’s going to hold himself to that promise, after all they have the rest of their lives. Even so he looks down at the other man and internally begs that Sanji will decide that it’s now.

Sanji leans up and kisses him and then pulls back a little, moving close to Zoro’s neck and he freezes. His heart thuds in his chest and this is it isn’t it? This is going to be-

“Your hat is stupid.” Sanji breathes in his ear and then tugs him down onto the bed and onto Sanji with it.

Sanji rolls them over until Sanji is the one on top and the blanket is draped over his shoulders, leaving Zoro in a warming space underneath him as Sanji is up on his elbows looking down at Zoro.

“I wanted to say thanks.” Sanji says to a space several inches to the left of Zoro’s face, like he can’t quite make him say it otherwise.

“I’ve… nights like this are always awful. I can’t manage to…” Sanji mumbles unhappily.

“Hey, you don’t have to-” Zoro protests, reaching up for Sanji’s face.

“No!” Sanji says sharply, jerking out of the way.

“You didn’t have to! I felt awful and I always have when I remember… but now I don’t! I feel okay and you did that.” Sanji insists, his voice almost angry with the intensity of the words, it’s good that he’s speaking Tsukian because he has no idea what that tone would do to Baratian words.

“It’s what I’m for. Now go to sleep idiot.” Zoro says gently and Sanji beams and him and settles down in what by now is his normal place against Zoro’s side and inside the curve of Zoro’s arm.

“The hat goes though.” Sanji says firmly and pulls it off of Zoro’s head and throws it across the room. Zoro wants to argue but he’s tired and he thinks that for once he can let this one thing go.

**  
  
**

When morning comes Sanji is already out of bed and out of the tent. Zoro doesn’t need to be a genius to work out where Sanji must be and sure enough he comes out of the tent to see Sanji already at the water’s edge washing up a pan. He flicks it off and turns back towards the fire, rubbing the pan with a small towel.

“Oh, I was just about to come and get you.” Sanji says brightly.

“LUFFY IF YOU TOUCH THAT BEFORE EVERYONE SITS DOWN I WILL KICK YOUR ASS!” Sanji screams at Luffy, making the captain pull back at least a little, his grabby hands a little further from the bread and other food.

“So what bit of that was a verb?” Franky says, looking at Robin. The two of them are sat on the trunk of a fallen tree with Franky straddling it to look right at Robin.

“In this case, ‘touch’, ‘sits’, and ‘kick’.” Robin answers.

“But those weren’t at the beginning of the sentence.” Franky points out.

“True, but in longer or more complex sentences like that they get broken up into separate clauses.” Robin explains and sips delicately at her drink.

“So if I said it with that order in Baratian it would be something like ‘kick your ass I will’?” Franky asks with a frown and Zoro winces to hear Tsukian grammar in Baratian words. Baratian and Tsukian just don’t work like that, you can’t directly translate a sentence just like it’s impossible to directly translate the written language. It’s hard enough to keep the meaning of a sentence in the wrong language, it’s half of the reason that he and Sanji keep switching languages in the same conversation, sometimes even in the same sentence.

But, wait. What?

“How did you know that was what he said?” Zoro asks in Baratian, looking at Franky. Sanji only just said it and he hadn’t heard Robin translate.

“Franky is a remarkably excellent student. I was giving him a few lessons and translations yesterday and he picks up vocabulary remarkably fast.” Robin says with a sweet smile and Zoro watches as Franky goes bright red at the top of his cheeks.

“That and Sanji’s threats are kind of predictable.” Franky says with a somewhat self deprecating shrug.

“I’m going to go talk to Sanij.” Zoro says instead of being slightly bitter at how quick Franky seems to be picking the language thing up. It’s taken he and Sanji forever to get good at each other’s languages and they’re still not even especially good yet. Sanji still fails to get the word that he needs and Zoro still ends up shouting the wrong word because he’s too expressive about it.

“Yeah, he seems pretty calm this morning.” Franky says with an eyebrow raised pointedly. Zoro remembers Usopp’s words that Sanji would be useless and unable to travel today and yet Sanji looks completely normal, or as normal as a man with one foot planted in Luffy’s face can look.

“He does.” Zoro agrees and walks over to Sanji to collect his breakfast.

It doesn’t take them long after breakfast to get everything packed up and get them on the move again, it’s far easier to take things down than it is to build them up. He hadn’t realised that it had been quite so long since he’d really ridden a horse for any significant period of time. In the whole time since he’d been married to Sanji he hadn’t gone riding once and now on their third actual day of riding he’s starting to regret that lapse. The fact that he has a bunch of bruises from last night doesn’t help in the matter, not the he regrets it at all.

Clearly he’s doing something wrong because his horse isn’t happy with him, it keeps jolting and almost squirming away. Zoro only realises that it’s not him when he hears Sanji talking to his horse in a concerned voice and he sees that it’s reacting the same way.

“Something’s wrong, get off of the horses.” Luffy says in his rare serious voice and everyone complies.

“We’re nearly at the top, what’re they’re complaining about?” Nami wonders aloud, rubbing the nose of her horse.

“Maybe they can sense a storm coming?” Usopp guesses, looking up at the sky which is indeed cloudy.  

“Pft. I’d know if there was.” Nami snorts.

“Let’s just get them over the top of the pass and worry about it afterwards.” Ace suggests and tugs his horse forwards.

“Maybe they can sense something we can’t. Perhaps we’ll all be buried in a horrible rock slide and die.” Robin says calmly. It must be said that at least Johnny and Yosaku don’t look any calmer for her having said it.

Luffy looks considerably serious and that worries Zoro. It doesn’t help that there’s this cold, uncomfortable feeling in his gut that has nothing to do with the winding narrow slippery and shale covered pass that they’ve been trekking up for the last two hours. What’s even more concerning is that Sanji seems twitchy too. His husband and his white horse linger a little until they’re both next to Zoro, slowly walking up the mountain pass.

“Do you feel that?” Sanji asks quietly.

“Yeah, something isn’t right.” Zoro agrees and Sanji has to pull his horse under control as the thing rears up a little and jerks as if it’s going to make a breath for it. The other horses are acting the same.

Their group get themselves and all of their horses around another corner before one of the horses finally cracks. Johnny’s horse, the one carrying the most, and the main packhorse that’s also under his control bolt. Johnny’s starts first but its panic and its escape spur the other one into doing the same. Both horses sprint wildly up out of sight back down the way that they came.

“Oh no. All of our food supplies. That we kept on that actual horse right there.” Sanji remarks flatly, looking at the horse as it bolts.

“If only someone had thought to split up the- OH WAIT I DID. NOW WE’RE NOT GOING TO DIE!” Sanji yells and flails his arms.

A lot of their group looks at Sanji rather sheepishly and Kaku is beet red in embarrassment.

“I couldn’t understand that.” Franky chips in. “But was he being a smug asshole about the food on the horses thing?”

“Yep.” Usopp agrees with a nod.

“Aw yeah, called it.” Franky says coolly and with a big grin.

“Oh, shut up. Let’s tie the horses up and go find out what’s freaking them out and deal with it.” Sanji says in Baratian at the same time that Nami says more or less the exact same thing in Tsukian to the rest of their group.

“Sounds like a plan!” Luffy chirps happily. They all start lashing their horses to narrow enough rocks with the longest part of their reigns.

“Since you did such a good job looking after your horse you two can make it up by watching all of them. They’d better all be here when we get back.” Nami says, glaring at Johnny and Yosaku as their group moves past.

“Sanji… Sanji I think I’ve got- disease!” Usopp babbles, though Zoro doesn’t catch a large part of that.

“He’s sick?” Zoro frowns in concern, looking over his shoulder at the significantly paler looking Usopp.

“No, he’s just being an idiot.” Sanji sighs, moving past Zoro and then coming back and moving past him again, this time dragging Usopp by the front of his shirt.

In a few minutes their group reaches the top of the mountain. Thankfully, although rather oddly, it’s not covered in snow.

The top of the mountain is a flat rocky place with two large pools of water before two large cave mouths on opposite sides. The plateau as a whole is easily as wide as his and Sanji’s whole section of the palace and they had to themselves, plus there’s a deep gorge cutting down the other side of the mountain next to the path down the other way. Zoro pulls out his swords and sees that he’s not the only one doing so. Nami’s staff is out and assembled, Kaku has his swords out, Ace is vaguely smoking and his hands are glowing with the slightest hint of flames and Robin has a few more visible knives than she did before.

Zoro’s scalp tingles and he’s pretty sure that his hair is standing on end, his skin prickles and static runs through his bones. Whatever this place is, it’s not reacting well with him. Franky’s not in much of a better state either so it’s not just him.

“That’s a lot of magic up here.” He breathes, his teeth chattering slightly as he tries to adjust to it.

“I know, it’s all raw and I didn’t get a chance to find where it was coming from when we went through here last.” Nami agrees.

“Yeah, we were too desperate to get to you to rescue you. Not that you needed it.” Luffy admits.

“Gee. Thanks.” Sanji grumbles and wanders past the group.

“Are you okay? The magic isn’t too much for you?” Nami asks softly, her eyes running over him with quiet concern.

“Ngh, I’m fine. I’ll be great in a minute, just adjusting to it feels really odd.” Zoro shudders. High magic areas like this don’t agree with him at all, but that’s not exactly surprising for him.

Sanji, Ace and Luffy are looking carefully behind all of the large rocky outcrops and Kaku is peering warily into one of the caves.

“UGH! There’s nothing here!” Sanji eventually shouts out in frustration as the pressure in Zoro’s sinuses and under his skin starts to ease off properly as he adjusts to the new environment.

“S-Sanji.” Usopp whimpers behind them. Zoro doesn’t look, he rubs his eyes and things start to feel a little better, he’s almost normal now.

“Just get up here Usopp, there’s nothing wrong.” Sanji says from behind a rock as he checks a little more.

“But… but… dragon.” Usopp says in a trembling voice.

“What?” Zoro frowns and turns around.

“How many times do I need to say it Usopp? There is NO. SUCH. THING!” Sanji shouts, his voice echoing into the cave that he’s peering into, the one that Kaku was just investigating.

Zoro stares up into the sky. It’s a fair ways off but even he can make out the huge body and slow flapping wings, the long neck and tail. More importantly it’s getting closer.

“A… dragon.” Ace says in a voice that sounds more stunned than calm.

“Don’t encourage him! You’ll make him worse!” Sanji snaps from inside the cave, his voice echoing.

Zoro stares at the thing as it gets closer because it is absolutely flying towards them now. He can make out blood red eyes set inside a glittering green and black body, he can see the leathery wings flapping and the way that it’s staring directly at them.

“KAKU! SANJI! GET OUT HERE!” Zoro yells, not taking his eyes off of the approaching beast.

“What’s all of the yelling ab… oh.” Sanji trails off, staring at the dragon as it comes far too close.

“That… is a dragon.” Sanji says slowly.

“I am going to fight that.” Luffy says with a devious and excited grin. Zoro’s eyes widen as he sees the dragon’s chest start to glow and it opens it’s terrible jaws and he sees a flicker of light within.

“NO YOU’RE NOT! WE’RE GOING TO RUN!” Nami shrieks, grabbing Luffy by the neck and sprinting for the cave that Sanji and Kaku are standing by in stunned shock.

“SHIT!” Ace swears loudly.

“Fire incoming, and not from ME!” Ace yells and starts hauling ass towards the cave. Zoro is already moving, the rest of the group either in front or to his sides, he’s not letting anyone get left behind.

He just manages to throw himself into the cave when a huge blasting wall of fire shoots by him, just missing him as the lip of the cave mouth protects him. He rolls and skids to the floor in a crouch, Robin landing just as gracefully. The two of them dart for the side of the cave that half of their group is at, with Sanji, Ace and Kaku at the other, shielded by a larger rock.

“You said they weren’t real!” Zoro shouts across the cave.

“I- they’re not!” Sanji exclaims with wide eyes.

“That looked pretty real to me!” Usopp wails.

Another blast of fire scorches past the entrance of the cave, slightly melting the rocks at the mouth of it.

“I may have been a little wrong on that one thing.” Sanji mumbles awkwardly.

“A LITTLE?!” Zoro snarls at him.

“Quit going on about it!” Sanji snaps back.

“I’m gonna fight it!” Luffy yells and sprints past Zoro before he can stop him.

“Not without me!” Kaku exclaims and runs out from behind his rock too. Sanji jumps in alarm and chases after the pair.

“Hold up your shitty bastards, you’re going to get yourselves- AGH!” Sanji’s voice cuts off in a yell as fire blasts past the entrance that the three of them just ran out of.

Zoro’s heart beats once, twice, three times before his mind catches up.

“SANJI!” He shouts, rushing to see if his husband, his friend and his nakama are still alive. Either way that dragon is going to die.

**  
  
**

 

* * *

So, like I said, I figure that you guys might need a map by now, so to help you with this chapter and to tide you over to the next (sorry not sorry about that chapter ending) here it is!

 


	17. Chapter 17

“Did you IDIOTS even have a plan?!” Sanji screeches, pinning the morons Luffy and Kaku to one side of the slowing melting rock.

“We can handle this. Let go. You’ll get yourself hurt.” Kaku says, peering around the rock at the dragon. Even through Kaku’s thick breastplate Sanji can feel that he’s tense.

“I’m gonna punch it in the face.” Luffy grins and bounds out.

“SANJI!” Zoro shouts, appearing at the mouth of the cave, two swords in hand with one still at his belt. His eyes are wide and for a moment he realises that Zoro was probably a little worried about the possibility of him getting barbequed by that burst of fire.

“Those two are crazy!” He insists, pointing towards Luffy and the now disappeared Kaku. If he hadn’t run out when he had then the two of them would be ash on the floor.

“Well, yeah.” Zoro shrugs and steps out of the cave. Sanji peers around the rock and looks at the dragon.

The thing is impossibly big and looks like it shouldn’t be able to fly at all. The whole thing is red and white, ranging from a deep blood colour to the purest white clouds. It’s bracing itself with four legs on the floor, each foot ending in multiple sharp claws as long as Sanji’s forearm. Each of its giant leathery wings are almost as long as it is and there is more than enough room for them to flare out aggressively on the mountain plateau that they’re on. The whole thing must be about fifty to sixty metres long from its plated tail to the head that’s easily Sanji’s height and half again tall.  

The thing snaps and snarls at Kaku and Luffy as they dance in and out of its reach, evidently undeterred by the dragon’s size and ferocity.  Luffy grabs Kaku out of the way with a long stretchy arm to save him from a rock melting blast of fire, sending the two into a roll on the floor. The dragon reels on them and the pair splits up, giving the dragon pause as it decides which one of them to flash burn.  

“We need a plan.” Nami says firmly, assembling a staff from a holster on her leg. Sanji doesn’t know what method of fighting Nami uses but he’s seen people use staffs for fighting before. He’s not sure how effective it’s going to be against that though.

“If I could get up onto its back I could try to cut its spine. I don’t know how hard those scales are. If I got Kaku up there too then the pair of us would stand a better chance. Two is better than one, or… five swords are better than three or… whatever. The more people trying the better the odds are I guess.” Zoro says with a confused frown.

“Do you need to count on your fingers there Zoro?” Sanji grins and Zoro backhands Sanji’s chest without even looking at him.

“Johnny and Yosaku could be useful here with their swords. Unless they were burnt alive of course.” Robin says thoughtfully.

“Is she joking?” Sanji mutters in Baratian. Usopp had snuck out of the cave and now has himself pressed against the rock and Sanji’s side like he regrets his moment of bravery.

“I… don’t think so.” Usopp mumbles back.

“Maybe we could climb the rocks and jump for its back but that would be too close and too slow.” Zoro scowls, discarding that plan as soon as it occurs to him.

“You’d be making yourself too easy of a target, and all it would have to do is to move slightly out of the way or hit you with those wings.” Nami agrees grimly.

“No, hold onto that thought. If Luffy keeps that thing distracted for a few moments I can get you up onto its back. I could do it for Kaku too if he’d let me.” Sanji says, eyeing the arc that he’d have to make to do it.

“How? Never mind how, you wouldn’t offer if you couldn’t do it. HEY LUFFY! DISTRACT IT!” Zoro yells at the top of his lungs.

“GET HIM LOOKING TO THE SIDE IF YOU CAN!” Sanji adds.

“When I say go, jump straight up, I’ll catch you.” He instructs, looking at Zoro. The swordsman looks intrigued but doesn’t question him.

Sanji stretches his leg a little and looks around the rock to see Luffy and Kaku doing a great job distracting the dragon, it’s looking away and…

“Go!” He shouts.

Zoro jumps up on the spot and Sanji swoops his leg under Zoro, pausing for a split second as Zoro’s feet touch his shin before whirling around with the right amount of strength and sending Zoro flying. Zoro twists in the air and lands square on the beast’s back, his swords digging in to keep him there as the dragon snarls in rage.

“Impressive.” Robin notes with a smile that makes Sanji blush profusely.

“Okay, Robin, see if you can do anything to pin it in place. I have a nasty feeling that it’s going to start trying to fly, if it does I can see what I can do to make it difficult for it. Ace?” Nami lists off and turns to Luffy’s brother.

“I know they say about fighting fire with fire but I’m pretty much useless here. My fire isn’t going to do anything to that thing, something that breathes fire is fireproof. At best we even out, at worst I might not be resistant to dragon fire. I can’t see this being much help either. What am I gonna do, heat the blade up and stab it in the neck?” Ace says wryly, waving his dagger around. Sanji knows that his Tsukian probably sounds odd so he doesn’t bring up how badly Ace just mangled the word ‘dragon’.

“Well, shit.” Franky concludes grimly. Sanji doesn’t know if Franky had picked up Tsukian that quickly or if he’s just reading their unhappy tones. In either case it’s the same result, they’re fighting a huge beast without much of a plan. Well, plan or not Sanji isn’t going to leave the others to face it on their own.

“I’m going to go kick the shit out of it. Franky can come up with some ingenious plan and Usopp is the best shot in the world, see if you can blind it Usopp!” He says, rushing off and leaving the others to do what they can. Behind him he can hear Franky sniffling and claiming that he’s not crying at all, the idiot.

Sanji gets to the dragon to find that Kaku is up on its back too, he suspects that Luffy may have had something to do with that. Unfortunately that leaves Luffy on the ground alone with the dragon swiping at him and breathing fire and that’s not looking too good for Luffy. Luffy shouts in alarm as his skin is singed as he dodges a little too late and his shirt catches fire at the edge. The dragon growls and lumbers closer to Luffy who crouches and winds up a punch, cornered but far from helpless. All the same he could use a hand, or in Sanji’s case, a foot. Sanji spots a reasonable sized boulder and kicks it hard enough and sends it flying through the air where it connects hard with the side of the dragon’s neck.

“Fight me you overgrown lizard!” Sanji yells, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify the noise.

The dragon snarls at him and Sanji grins, that’s more like it. Luffy takes the opportunity of it not paying attention to punch it right in the nose, though it doesn’t seem to have much effect, perhaps its skin is tougher there. Luffy hisses in anger and swings one leg in the air, just as Sanji has to duck behind a rock to avoid getting the skin melted off of his bones by a blast of fire. He watches with wide eyes as Luffy’s leg stretches high in the air before being brought down on the dragon’s muzzle with a hit hard enough to leave it reeling.

“Hey Luffy, do that again! Together let’s cave it’s face in!” Sanji calls, rushing out from behind the rock. Luffy looks at him for a second and then winds up for another kick. Sanji grins wildly and leaps up in the air at the same time as Luffy’s leg snaps up into the air above him. It’s been FAR too long since he’s had this much excitement! The closest thing that he can compare this to was when he went out to sea before with Franky, Patty and Carne and they had to fight a Sea King. This is SO much fun.

He and Luffy both smash their kicks into the dragon’s muzzle at the same time, snapping its jaw shut and making its head hit the ground with a rock cracking thud. This thing might be a monster in size but it means that they’re faster than it in physical speed. If they can just keep it occupied and keep out of the way of its fire then they’ll give Zoro more than enough time to cut its spine. Sanji wonders if it’s like a lobster, if there are several neural centres. It would make sense for something this big to have separated brains and brain like areas to coordinate such a huge body but… well, the size of its skull suggests otherwise. Hopefully it will have just the one and cutting its spine will do the job.

“WHOA!” A voice from above yells and Sanji looks up to see Kaku suspended in a net of hands. He supposes that he and Luffy smashing the dragon’s head into the ground may well have jolted Kaku loose. Robin and Kaku yell at each other, it sounds like thanks, but over the rumbling sound of building dragon fire Sanji doesn’t have a lot of time to listen and translate. He and Luffy duck behind another rapidly melting rock, the pair of them are quite quickly running out of rocks big enough to hide behind and it doesn’t help that the dragon is stomping closer to the cave that the rest of their party are in.

“Any time today Zoro!” he yells, patting his hair to make sure that none of it singed. He’s already got mud in it once in the last 24 hours, he doesn’t need it burning too.

“Shut UP! It’s tougher than-!” And whatever Zoro is saying that it’s tougher than Sanji doesn’t know, but it’s apparently quite tough. He may not be able to get through to its spine, or at least not quickly, which means that they have to come up with a plan B.

No sooner than he thinks that does a set of hands bloom by the dragon’s eyes. In a display that makes Sanji cringe and his eyes water, Robin’s fingers curl under its dual eyelids, one set straight down and a clear set side to side, just like a shark. She hauls them back and the dragon outright yelps, a noise only in contradiction for a creature so big and fearsome.

“You can breathe fire but let’s see how you are with heat!” Usopp yells with a line that’d probably be thinking up for the last minute while he waited for his opportunity, but it still sounds cool. He fires off shot after shot, almost too fast for Sanji to keep up with. The pellets hit the dragon in its exposed eyes and it roars. Robin’s hands are dislodged in a flurry of petals as the beast paws desperately at its eyes.

“Tabasco?” Sanji asks, looking at his nakama.

“And pepper, it’s a new mix!” Usopp beams.

“Excellent.” Sanji grins and he and Luffy charge forward, this time accompanied by Franky.

“Me and Usopp cooked a little something up. I just need to wait for the right time.” Franky says a little breathlessly as they run closer to the dragon across the plateau of rock on the mountaintop. Sanji look over to him to see him whirling some metal cable and hook affair around in the air in small circles by his hand. It looks like some kind of grappling hook but Sanji trusts the two of them to have come up with a plan.

Sanji skids to a halt before the dragon, the thing is still flailing around, scratching at its eyes. Sanji wants to get close and do some damage but it’s moving so erratically that he’s not sure that he can manage it without getting stomped on or backhanded by those giant clawed feet. He doesn’t feel like getting near one of those claws at high speed, they could probably gut him without any effort at all.

Sanji ducks in, closer to the creature’s neck and out of the range of its feet. He hopes that the thing doesn’t suddenly drop or he’ll be crushed like a pancake, though maybe he can roll out to the side. Well, who ever gained anything without a little risk? At this position he can kick upwards into the dragon’s throat, it’s plated on the underside instead of scaled, so maybe if he gets the angle right he can drive one of them back into the softer flesh underneath. He pauses for a moment, working out the angle. But no sooner has he resolved to a plan of attack than the beast than he’s knocked flat by a huge blast of wind.

“Sanji!” Franky yells for him and the grappling hook flies in his direction, nearly hitting him in the skull. He grabs hold of it and Franky yanks him forward. Franky hauls him to his feet and Sanji turns around, his hand shielding his eyes to see the dragon beating it’s gigantic leathery wings and leaving the floor. It’s going to fly off with Zoro and Kaku on it! Evidently Luffy comes to the same conclusion and flings out long rubbery arms and when they snap back they have Zoro and Kaku and such a large number of swords that Sanji is amazed that no one gets stabbed.

“Leave this to me.” Nami says coming forwards, twirling her staff in her hands. Sanji frowns, he has no idea what she’s planning on doing, but from the way that all of Zoro’s knights rapidly get the fuck out of the way Sanji guesses that it would be wise for him to do the same.

The wind alters rapidly as she twirls her staff, flashing from scorching kitchen heat to the cold of a winter sea gale. Sanji’s skin prickles and he watches as Nami’s hair writhes and swirls like she’s underwater. Sanji’s mind latches onto one word. Witch.

The dragon snarls and opens its terrible jaws and Sanji sees a glow building in there but Nami moves first. She plants one foot hard onto the ground and spins to the other direction, slamming that foot into the ground too. The air around them feels oily for a split second and with a bang and a burst of light the dragon reels in the air. Storm clouds that hadn’t been there before crackle and burst with fork lightning, driving the creature to the ground.

It lands in a heap and Nami wavers and nearly falls over herself. Robin catches her and whispers soothing things to her and Sanji sees that her nose is starting to bleed a little, evidently that much power takes a lot out of her. Zoro looks at her and Sanji watches a muscle in his jaw tense and twitch.

“Fuck this thing’s spine, I’m going right through its head.” Zoro snarls, stalking towards it.

“How are your going to do that?” Luffy asks, bounding along behind him. Sanji and Franky dart forward to catch up with the pair with Ace and Kaku on their tail.

“Through its mouth.” Zoro growls.

“Are you crazy?” Sanji exclaims in shock.

“Yeah!” Luffy shouts enthusiastically, slapping Zoro on the back.

“The good kind.” Ace agrees with a grin.

“Let’s do this!” Ace laughs brightly and Sanji can see that he and Luffy have a fair bit in common. The group of them get to the dragon’s mouth, its head is slumped against the floor, the lightning having stunned it enough to render it motionless, for now at least. Sanji can see that it’s still breathing and can feel its hot breath come out in puffs.

Zoro sheathes his weapons, grabs the thing’s upper jaw and works his fingers in and Sanji watches as Luffy, Kaku and Franky do the same. Ace steps forward at the same time as Sanji and with a little reluctance Sanji puts his precious hands in the monster’s maw. As one they all prepare to heave they are joined by another body between him and Franky. Sanji looks over to see the trembling Usopp between them and he grins at Franky as they both revel in Usopp’s moment of bravery.

As one they all heave upwards and force its jaw open, between all of them it’s not too heavy. Sanji winces and splits his legs, moving one right upwards between his arms and planting his foot in its gums and taking his hands back, wiping them on his hips and checking them for nicks and scratches. Zoro ducks inside, drawing his swords as he does so. There’s only just enough space for him to walk stooped over. As he walks he feels the monster’s palate, seeing where is best to stab.

“Go as far back as you can, it’ll be thinner there and you’ll hit more brain!” Sanji calls. He regrets opening his mouth though because as he’s talking the dragon breathes out, filling Sanji’s mouth and his sensitive tongue with the rancid taste of its breath. It’s sulfuric but there’s also a smell of rotten meat and molten metal.

“Oh, ugh.” Sanji winces and nearly claps his hands over his mouth until he remembers just where his hands have been. They’re probably no better and having dragon spit on his tongue is something that he could happily die without experiencing.

Zoro ducks into a full crouch and presses his sword upwards, clearly having to strain to get through the bone. Sanji watches Zoro’s back muscles tense and flex along with his arms as Zoro forces upwards.

“How fucking thick is this thing?” Zoro hisses, shoving upwards.

“It doesn’t want its food fighting back and doing any real damage.” Sanji answers.

The dragon snarls and all of them freeze as one. Sanji feels the pressure on the jaw above him increase and all of them grunt with the effort to hold up the tightening jaw, the dragon is not happy about having its mouth forced open and now that it’s starting to wake up it’s getting stronger. Zoro shakes the shock off and forces his sword upwards with more strength. Sanji hears the bone creak and groan but he also feels the dragon stir and hears a loud ground shaking thud, he looks over and sees the dragon’s front foot slamming into the ground and feels the shift as it tries to push itself back up again.

“Hold my bit for a second.” Sanji says to Franky and Usopp who just have time to look startled as Sanji leaps into the dragon’s mouth ever so slightly, just to be on the other side of its teeth. He jams his leg back upright again and braces his other on the inside gum of its mouth. Clearly he picked the right time to do it as one claw tipped foot rushes by the dragon’s mouth, causing Luffy to leap away or be cut in half. Kaku has to do the same but he rushes back right away. Even so Sanji feels the strain as the biting force of the dragon’s maw is distributed between fewer and fewer people.

“Usopp, take it, go with Luffy, we can’t let it get up.” Franky groans, taking one hand off of the dragon’s mouth to shake the wound up grappling hook like thing off of his shoulder where it had been wound. Usopp looks at him wide eyed and then nods.

“Oi! Luffy! I have a plan!” Usopp yells as he rushes off.

“Damnit, what is he doing?” Ace grunts, putting more of a push into his hold on the dragon’s jaw.

The dragon lashes and Sanji feels the two of them get lifted up off of the floor and then slammed down again as the beast moves. Franky falls back with a yell and Ace stumbles to the side and the dragon manages to force that side of its jaw down a little before Sanji can correct for it with his own strength. Sanji watches in wide eyed horror as a particularly long tooth slices through Ace’s chest.

“Ace!” Sanji yells in alarm as the man bursts into flames.

Ace reforms in a ball of fire, stunned but otherwise okay. Sanji shakes his head, fucking devil’s fruit madness. Sanji grimaces, the weight of the dragon’s jaw is almost too much for him.

“COME ONNN!” Zoro yells, forcing upwards still.

“Zoro, come back! Can’t you feel it’s getting hotter? If you don’t break through then you’ll be burned alive!” Kaku shouts desperately.

Sanji feels like it’s impossible, if someone could get through that then Zoro would have done it by now, but still somehow it doesn’t feel hopeless. Sanji can see the glow building behind Zoro and clearly Zoro can see it too.

“Then leave! If its jaw shuts then my blade will definitely drive through into its brain!” Zoro shouts back.

“That’s an order!” Zoro shouts and Kaku freezes. Zoro sends him a sharp glare. Kaku lets go but he looks as if he might cry. Sanji bears the weight but only just, he nearly knees himself in the face doing it and has to brace his hands on the dragon’s palate to keep it up.

“Sanji!” Zoro snarls and Sanji hears bone splinter and sees Zoro’s sword move upwards another inch. Zoro’s muscles are bulging and shaking with the strain and Sanji can see just how tough this is on him.

“I don’t give you orders remember? So you sure as shit aren’t giving me- nhg- you aren’t giving ME any!” Sanji hisses out between gritted teeth.

“I’m not going anywhere, so either- either we both live or- AUGH!” Sanji is cut off as his leg cramps and he falls. The dragon’s jaw snaps shut and he’s plunged into darkness.

He’s forced down against the dragon’s slick and disgusting tongue, but there’s just room enough to crawl.

“Sanji, are you- agh-” Zoro gasps out and Sanji crawls towards his voice.

His hands touch Zoro’s knee and his thigh, Zoro is shaking.

Zoro should be berating him for not leaving, he should be telling him that he’s an idiot for staying, but maybe Zoro respects Sanji’s decision now that he’s made it. That seems like the kind of thing Zoro would do.

“You’re nearly through.” Sanji breathes.

“I’m going to kill this thing if it’s the last thing I do.” Zoro’s voice says in the dank darkness that is rapidly becoming less dark, the dragon is going to breathe fire.

“Let’s make sure it’s not the last thing that you do.” Sanji says back and reaches for Zoro’s hands.

“Let me help.” He pleads.

“Hands around mine, just… push.” Zoro grits out, and Sanji can see his face in the dim light that’s building brighter. He slides on the slick and now moving tongue and wraps his hands around Zoro’s properly, his fingertips just touching the marks that he put on Zoro’s skin.

Sanji heaves and he sees why Zoro was having so much trouble. This part of the dragon’s mouth will clearly go through into its brain, but the angle is unforgiving. Zoro is through the flesh easily and Sanji sees splintered bone above him, can see the chunks of it at their feet. As one the two of them heave, Zoro’s technique doing all of the work and Sanji just providing him with the extra strength.

It gets brighter around them and Sanji can feel the licks of fire just a breath away, like having his arm the oven to pull out a meal, only now he’s the meal. A chef shouldn’t be food for something else.

It happens at at once. The bone snaps and he and Zoro jerk upwards so rapidly that their hands hit the roof of the dragon’s mouth. The fire recedes to nothing more than a hot and unpleasant gust of air around them. Sanji twists on the axis of his leg and pushes against the roof of the dragon’s mouth long enough for Zoro to dislodge and remove his sword in one swift motion that suddenly covers the two of them in a flood of hot slick goop. The two of them yell and Sanji gags at the feel of it all over his skin. He’s never going to be clean enough from this, he’s going to have to burn these clothes and have a thousand baths.

“This way.” Sanji spits out through the slime, grabbing Zoro’s elbow. He’s not going to have his husband slay a dragon and then get killed by wandering into its stomach by mistake. The two of them slither and slide to the giant teeth and Sanji puts all of the effort that he has left into raising the dragon’s now slack jaw as much as he can.

“Get us OUT of here!” Zoro yells through the gap before Sanji’s legs give way and the jaws snap shut again.

Several pairs of hands haul the dragon’s lax mouth open and he and Zoro half climb and are half pulled from inside with a wet goopy splat as they hit the floor.

“Eugh, what is that stuff?” Usopp winces, looking down at Sanji. Sanji scowls, it’s on his skin, in his hair and if Usopp keeps looking at him like that it will be on his nakama’s face too.

“Hm, it’s sticky.” Robin notes, crouching down and touching Sanji’s hair. She wrinkles her nose in distaste and casually reaches over and wipes her hand on Usopp’s clothes.

“Hey! Don’t wipe it on me!” Usopp yells indignantly.

“It came out when I stabbed its brain.” Zoro says, sitting up and flicking his arms quickly to dislodge some of the clear goo.

“I need to wash this off.” Sanji groans, getting to his feet.

“I’m gonna go chase down that horse that ran off.” Ace decides out loud.

“Race you to it!” Luffy declares and sprints off in the right direction.

“Luffy! No way you’ll outrun me!” Ace bellows and goes tearing after him down the path.

“Are you okay? I’m so sorry!” Kaku exclaims, pulling Zoro to his feet with a little difficulty due to the slipperiness of his skin.

“I’m fine Kaku. Man, we did it.” Zoro exclaims in wonder, turning around to look at the fallen beast. Sanji stares up at it as well.

 

It looks even bigger when it's on the ground and not trying to kill them. It's a lot easier to appreciate the unbelievable size and the kind of deadly and horrific beauty that it has. If it wasn't for the fact that it had tried to roast all of them alive Sanji would feel sad over its death, at least a little. Even so, as much as he'd like to stand there and revel in his victory he's still covered in disgusting slime.

Sanji leans forward and peels his shirt off, letting it drop to the floor with a wet slap. Naked from the waist up he shivers in the cold air, but in his opinion it's better than being coated in that grossness.

“I'm not so sure that's gonna come off without an awful lot of scrubbing little bro.” Franky notes with a wince, peering down at Sanji.

“Yeah, thanks for rubbing that in.” he grumbles, wiping one hand along his forearm to try and sluice more of it off of his skin.

“Naw, if I was rubbing it in it'd be like this.” Franky grins and Sanji doesn't even have time to react before the idiot's large hand is rubbing hard into the top of his head, grinding the slime even deeper into his hair and wetly against his scalp.

“AUGH!” he yells and kicks Franky hard enough to have him hopping back clutching his knee, though he's still laughing, that bastard.

“I knew you could do it! I wasn't scared at all when you went into that thing's mouth.” Usopp asserts, though his wobbling lower lip tells Sanji otherwise.

Sanji wonders what it must have been like for them, seeing him disappearing inside the dragon and watching those jaws slam shut. Did they think that he was dead immediately or did they envision a gruesome death of being chewed apart alive? That's quite an ordeal that he's put them through. Usopp's not wailing and whimpering like he would have done when they were far younger.

“Of course.” Sanji grins broadly and Usopp almost sparkles with glee. Hell, he's so transparent sometimes.

“Still, that's a pretty amazing start to the journey, huh?” He muses and turns to look at the dragon a little more. Usopp and Franky both agree quietly and the three of them share a moment of wonder as they stare at the felled creature.

 

“Was this what you two expected when you agreed to come along?” He asks quietly. He can't help but worry that they'll regret it but be too unnerved by his status to bow out. Lots of people would after a fight like this, he wouldn't blame them.

“I know I'm your prince but if you don't want to do this I wouldn't-” He starts to say but Franky forces all of the air out of Sanji's lungs with a solid slap to his back.

“It's better than I thought, and if we couldn't deal with it then you think we would say? Who cares if you're a prince, you're the same dumb idiot you've always been!” Franky guffaws.

“Yeah, we've been friends since we were kids. I mean- nakama.” Usopp adds, correcting himself at the last minute with a stupidly happy flush of his cheeks. Sanji understands the concept but he didn't have the understanding of the idea since he was a kid so he's not sure that he'll ever feel quite like it's as big a deal as Usopp does. For him the idea that Usopp has his back, that he's his friend no matter what, that he's someone that he doesn't have to be a prince to... it doesn't feel like a big deal. It's not like how marrying Zoro was a big change in status for him, a clear line of before and after. For Usopp the confirmation that they were nakama clearly was a big deal like that, but for him it's just right, everything is as it should be as far as he's concerned.

“Same, you're still the same dumb little brat that hounded me and followed me around the castle when I was there to get the King to agree to the last of the railway! You kept getting in things that you shouldn't and getting in trouble. Same as now, only bigger and cooler things!” Franky laughs loudly and obnoxiously.

“I wasn't a dumb little brat! I was thirteen!” Sanji complains bitterly and he knows that his face is heating up. He grinds his teeth together, but the more irritated he looks the more Franky laughs, so much so that even Usopp is getting in on the act.

 

“Whatever you say. Anyway, we're not going anywhere, right Usopp?” Franky grins.

“Right!” Usopp cheers brightly.

Behind them Zoro makes a noise like he's in pain and Sanji turns around to see Zoro with his hands smacked to his face groaning in something that sounds less like pain and more like mortification.

“What's your problem? Did your tiny brain finally roll out of your ears?” Sanji barks at him in Tsukian.

“If it had it would only be to get away from your shameless-. I'm going to go throw myself in that lake up there.” Zoro shouts back and turns away and walks over to the side of the mountain.

“What did he say?” Franky asks quietly.

“Yeah, I didn't catch part of that.” Sanji mutters, but doesn't turn to face him, he's not gonna break his glare at Zoro's retreating form that easily.

“Wow, you mean they're not...?” Nami says wide eyed as Zoro passes her.

“He and Usopp are but Franky isn't to either.” Zoro answers with a wave in their direction.

“Uh, the best translation that I can give you is that he's accusing us of being. Uhm. Well, like I said, nakama is a relationship like any other. Being someone's nakama is as distinct from friendship as dating someone is, even though it's not romantic in that sense. So... it's... I guess the closest word would be slutty. Similar to sleeping with other people when you're not even dating them.” Usopp says uncomfortably.

“Wow, does anyone even use that word any more? Slutty, what a stupid idea. How other people treat their first time is their business.” Sanji says feeling disgust roll over him. Someone's first time at anything is supposed to be personal and no one else should comment on that sort of thing. It's just fucking rude.

“I used to hear people saying it a lot when I was a kid but still. So was that... are we... being... like that?” Franky asks in confusion.

 

“I think that it's your culture.” Robin says, making all three of them jump. Sanji is still alarmed at how silently she can move. He looks around at her wide eyed and sees her smiling softly at the three of them.

“You don't have to act like us if you don't want to. I know that there are plenty of things in your culture that I find fascinating but would be unable to adopt myself. You shouldn't feel the need to change yourselves for us.” Robin says gently.

“Robin...” Usopp murmurs, taken aback by her words.

“What's you opinion though?” Franky asks, looking right at her. Robin's eyes widen in surprise and the two of them look at each other in silence before she speaks again.

“Well, if you want my advice I would say that the three of you are already there. You've probably been nakama for a long time. The only thing that you don't seem to have is the name.” She says slowly and with a small smile at Franky, like he's just done something interesting or perhaps amusing.

“Super. Well, may as well call a spade a spade then, huh?” Franky grins toothily at them.

“We're nakama then!” He declares loudly and enthusiastically.

“Don't you have to ask first?” Sanji asks uncertainly, looking at Usopp. He asked him at least, was that right or was he the one that made the mistake?

“Yeah, you generally ask first.” Usopp agrees with a nod.

“I guess we don't have to be too normal about it though, right? I mean we are Baratian.” Sanji hedges, he doesn't want Franky to feel weird about this. He has known Franky for ages and he does trust him, just like he does Usopp. He doesn't want to put Franky off of this idea. He had trusted Franky and Usopp absolutely when they ran off with that cable in a bid to do... whatever exactly it was that they did to the dragon. They had trusted that he would be okay as they did it too, it went both ways. Isn't that what this is all about?

“Hmm,” Franky says thoughtfully and then holds both hands out at them, his arms bent almost like he wants to arm wrestle them.

“Then be my nakama!” He shouts loudly.

Sanji pauses and then grins, reaching out and slapping his hand into Franky's and clasping it around Franky's and Franky's huge hand curls around his. He sees Usopp do the same.

“SUPERRRR!” Franky bellows, lifting his arms up and smacking the stars on his forearms together. Unfortunately he's still holding Sanji and Usopp in his hands and for a split second Sanji panics and wants to kick out to get down and keep his hands safe. But the instinct is quelled when he realises that Franky is holding his wrist and hand with care.

So this is nakama.

It feels pretty good.

 

“Well, I'll leave you three to...” Robin trails off with a secretive little smile.

“I'm going to go see if Johnny and Yosaku are dead and roasted along with our horses.” She says optimistically and walks off as if she hadn't just said something terribly grim.

“Uh, that's... thank you?” Usopp says uncertainly as Franky lowers him and Sanji to the ground.

“Well that was... didn't Zoro say something about washing off? Some kind of lake?” Sanji says trying to change the topic, also he really approves of anything that gets him less slimy. He doesn't know what that monster had around its brain but he sure as hell doesn't want it on him any longer.

“I didn't see anything, but then I wasn't riding a dragon. Nami's heading up there now though and I think Zoro went that way.” Usopp says, pointing at the other side of the plateau that now has a dead dragon on it. There's a higher peak to the mountain that they're on, the plateau is only the midpoint of the pass between two paths up to it and it's lower than the rest of the mountain range around it. Sanji guesses that it's part of what makes the pass flood so easily.

Sanji follows the path that Nami went up, it's pretty rocky and requires both scrambling up inclines and a little bit of climbing. Within a few minutes though he's at a higher point in the mountain and there's a rocky pool there. It looks more like a small lagoon in truth, but there are a few large rocks at the edge and Sanji can see Nami's trousers and shirt on them and tries not to think too hard about that or else he risks a lot of blood loss. Also he runs the risk of Zoro getting pretty mad at him.

Zoro is in the water and scrubbing at his hair and Sanji is suddenly desperate to do the same to his own. Kaku is treading water near the edge and scrubbing soot marks off of his skin. Sanji’s just glad that no one was burnt for real.

“I thought that you would be bitching about the cold again like a baby.” Sanji smirks at Zoro as he pulls off his boots. He'll wash those off later but he doesn't want to bathe with them on.

“Feel.” Zoro says calmly, holding out his palm with a little puddle of water inside it.

Sanji reaches out to touch it, it can't be too cold if Zoro can stand it, on the other hand maybe the other man has just toughened-

“HAH!” Zoro yells and his hand clasps around Sanji's wrist and Sanji's whole world lurches forward and he just has the sense to gasp in a breath and hold it before he hits the water.

 

Sanji's body turns in the water, bubbles streaming past him. It’s surprisingly warm, there must be a source of heat close to this in the mountain. That’s not his main concern right now though. He opens his eyes and twists around so that he can see Zoro. He surfaces with a scowl to Zoro's fucking laughing face. Even Nami is giggling a little behind her hand, even if she's pretending to disapprove.

“Piece of advice, Zoro. Don't. Fuck. With. A. Baratian. In. Water.” He says sharply, dropping each word on Zoro's head as he gets closer. He pushes his hands against the rock on either side of Zoro's body and glares at him, his wet and still slightly slimy hair sticking to him.

“Oh yeah?” Zoro says, raising an eyebrow.

“I was born in water three times over, fucker, don't doubt me.” He snaps back.

“You what?” Zoro says, squinting in confusion and looking to Usopp, clearly thinking that he misunderstood.

“All Baratians are born in water, it's how we do it here. There are baths and pools for it.” Usopp explains.

“What? Why?” Zoro asks in confusion.

“It's easier for the mothers, plus Baratie has a special relationship with water. I'm sure Robin told you that it's kind of religious for a lot of Baratians. But Sanji's different.” Usopp answers and Sanji's grin goes wider.

“How?” Zoro questions suspiciously, his eyes sliding to Sanji and his malevolent grin.

“Well, water is a special thing. It wasn't planned but the Queen went into labor with Sanji early, they got her to a large bath in time and it was all okay. But that wasn't it, as well as being in water when he was born he was on a ship at sea, so he was in water and in water at the same time.” Usopp continues.

“And from what I hear it was raining in a storm too. Three times the water, very lucky, a pretty good omen if you ask me.” Franky nods.

“Exactly, so don't fuck with me when it comes to water Zoro. I am the best swimmer that you've ever met, I can outswim fishmen, I can drown ten men one after another before I need to come up for air. So just try me, I dare you.” He hisses out the threatening boast and Zoro's eyes go wide. For all that Zoro probably doesn't believe in water like Sanji does he knows a challenge when he hears one.

“Alright, let's see if you're all talk.” Zoro smirks.

“Perfect.” Sanji purrs. He reaches forward and snags Zoro by the back of the neck. He kicks off of the rock and drags him underwater.

 

The water is a clear and perfect blue, it's deep in colour like the bluest sky on a summer day just coming from dawn with a hint of darkness still in it. The small lagoon isn't even that deep, maybe only about fifteen or twenty feet after the small ledge like outcrop of rocks that Zoro and Nami had been leaning against. It's more than spacious enough to drag Zoro down to the bottom. He turns in the water and shoves Zoro beneath him, not quite throwing him against the rocks at the bottom, just keeping Zoro below him.

Zoro is wide eyed and at first he tries to move up, tries to get above Sanji but he's ungraceful in water compared to Sanji. Zoro can swim and he seems to be a strong swimmer, but water is where Sanji belongs, water is his home. He turns Zoro and moves him every time Zoro tries to outmaneuver him and before too long Zoro gets the idea that he's not going anywhere unless Sanji wants him to. Zoro moves in the water and clings to a rock with one hand, his cheeks all big like a startled pufferfish. He's trying to hold his breath longer than Sanji, what an idiot.

Sanji floats where he is and sits crosslegged in the water, perfectly level. He watches as Zoro eyeballs him in alarm and confusion, clearly he has no idea how Sanji can do what he's doing. He smiles, this is going to be fun. He wonders if Zoro is going to train to try to be better than him in the water. The emphasis is on try of course because there's no way he's going to do it, though if he feels that Zoro is catching up he'll try to harmonize with the water better. He unravels himself lazily and kicks gently, carving a path through the water, watching Zoro as he struggles to keep his breath. The other man is going red though and it's not too long before Zoro caves and bursts for the surface.

Hah, he knew he'd win.

He takes the opportunity of being alone to look around. The small lagoon is a deep blue, almost deeper than it should be. Oddly the rocks don't look too much like lagoon rocks, there's no plant life of any kind around and it's frankly a little odd. He traces the wall along and then in surprise he discovers that one of the walls of the lagoon is in fact not a wall but a tunnel.

He estimates that he's got a few minutes of air left before things get tricky for him. He ducks down and swims inside. It's not too tight at all, he could probably stand in it if he wanted to, or maybe he'd have to stoop a little. Either way it's not tight.

The water brightens suddenly ahead of him and Sanji has to fight down the smile, he doesn't want air escaping because he's opened his mouth slightly to smile wide. He heads forward and sure enough the tunnel exits and there's a surface of water there.

He breaches the surface and looks around in amazement.

 

The place that the water has taken him to is either a small cave or a huge geode, depending on your point of view. Every wall of it is lined with spikes of crystals and when Sanji reaches out to touch it he knows just what they are. He's seen a mine of them before but never quite like this. The whole place is illuminated by a few cracks and holes in the upper part of the dome that let in enough light to set off the cascade of glittering blue around him.

Part of the geode has a floor above the water. The whole structure looks like it's perfectly spherical and it's probably been here since the mountain was first created, probably by whatever thermal force is keeping the water here warm enough to stave off Zoro's babyish aversion to the cold. Thinking about it the water has clearly eroded some of the stones and that's probably what's coloured the lagoon water bluer than it should be for one that small.

He hauls himself up from the smoothed down water side and onto the precariously spiky interior. He has to be careful where he puts his feet but he can't resist the chance to look around.

The stones jutting out from the walls around him range from almost clear to cornflower blue, there are other ones too, full sea blues and sky blue ones with traces of white impurities that look almost like clouds. This is amazing.

“Holy fucking shit.” He concludes.

He takes a breath and dives back down, unable to stop grinning so hard that he leaves a trail of bubbles behind him. Well, it doesn't matter, it's not like he's swimming far. He just has to show this to the others.

 

He surfaces on the other side of the tunnel to a bunch of alarmed expressions.

“That was a long time even for you Sanji.” Franky remarks.

“Where the hell did you go? I dived down and you were gone.” Zoro frowns looking displeased.

“Oh, poor marimo.” Sanji sighs in sympathy.

“Were you worried about me?” He asks sweetly. Zoro reacts like Sanji has just thrown a snake in his face, looking startled and more than a little angry and annoyed.

“No!” He barks back.

“Aww, were you scared for me? Did you go looking?” Sanji persists, swimming closer to Zoro and wrapping his arms around Zoro's neck and shoulders. The look on Zoro's face is priceless. Sanji wishes that he could capture it, get it painted in a six foot by six foot painting and then just hang it on his wall to stare at forever.

He flutters his eyelashes at Zoro just to see if he can make it better. Zoro's teeth are clenched together so hard that Sanji is pretty sure they may never come apart again, they're just gonna fuse together. He should also probably get that pulsing vein in his forehead checked out.

“Do you like me or something?” He gasps.

“NO! I HATE YOU!” Zoro snarls at him and shoves him underwater. Sanji fights the urge to laugh, that dumbass, hadn't he just proved what he can do in water? He surges forward and tackles Zoro around his middle. He opens his mouth as the childish urge to bite Zoro flares up. He stops that before he can get started when he remembers just what biting Zoro means and though his sex drive says 'YES' everything else in him reluctantly says 'no'. Still, he can still piss Zoro off, that's almost as good.

He surfaces, his hands on Zoro's hips and squirts the water in his mouth at Zoro's face. Zoro snarls angrily and shoves his hand in Sanji's face, pushing him back. It doesn't matter though, Sanji is laughing too hard to resist him.

“Nami, how angry do you think my father would be if I murdered Sanji before we got to Shimotsuki?” Zoro growls, glaring holes in Sanji's head.

“Probably just as angry as he would be if you murdered him there. Which is very. Don't murder him.” Nami answers with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. Sanji sticks his tongue out at Zoro and Zoro makes to grab it but he's not fast enough, not in water at least.

 

“Seriously though, come with me, I want to show you where I was.” Sanji exclaims, his mind going back to the glittering cave.

“Why should I go anywhere with you?” Zoro asks, glowering at him.

“Because you trust me.” Sanji says seriously, his hands coming to Zoro's face. That at least seems to persuade Zoro, especially as Sanji is being serious right now.

“Where were you then?” Zoro asks.

“Through here, there's a tunnel, it leads out into a... a... I don't know the word.” Sanji trails off.

“Usopp, help me out here!” Sanji calls and reluctantly Usopp peels off his shirt and kicks of his boots, leaving him in just his dungarees. He dives into the water and swims over.

“Inside there it's full of gems, sea crystals, all kinds, colours and sizes! It's basically a giant geode, I think anyway. It's spherical and it's so, SO amazing. But... I don't know the words.” Sanji says unhappily in Baratian. He knows that he and Zoro are miles and miles better linguistically than where they were, even more than where they were a month ago. He wishes that he could have told Zoro all of that himself though, it's frustrating to still have to keep going back to Usopp and Robin with things like this. For the most part he and Zoro are just fine on their own, sometimes they have to remind each other of a word or switch languages mid sentence to work something out, but that's easy. But now and then this happens and Sanji lacks all of the vocabulary. It's no better for Zoro either, he's clearly got the structure of what Sanji was saying but not the meaning.

Usopp translates for him and they go back and forth a few times until Sanji has got the Tsukian for gems, precious stones and geode and Zoro has the Baratian for it. Sanji's not sure when he's ever going to need to say geode again, but if he doesn't learn the word then he can bet that it'll come up again.

“Wait, gems? Shiny, sparkly, practically money gems?” Nami gasps excitedly, swimming quickly over to them.

“Uh, yes. Yes!” Sanji says pleased although slightly confused at her enthusiasm.

“Come on, dive down. There's a tunnel through there, it's barely any distance. Come with Usopp, I'm probably gonna need some language help here.” Sanji calls. He dives down with ease and turns and watches as Zoro follows him. He holds out his hand and Zoro takes it. Sanji turns and propels them through the water and into the cave and up to the surface.

“Oh fuck that's... wow.” Zoro says in awe, turning around in the water to look at all of it.

“I know! Isn't it great?” Sanji exclaims in glee.

 

“Do you think that I should go get Nami? A delicate lady might not-” Sanji starts but before he can finish his sentence Nami surfaces through the water with a gasp.

“Yeah, you're not gonna have any problem there.” Zoro chuckles at him and Sanji is very much sure that it is at him. Sanji pouts, he wasn't assuming that Nami was incapable, he just thought that he might be a gentleman and help her through the tunnel.

Usopp also breaks through the water with a somewhat terrified gasp, he's out of breath but it's probably more from nerves than the diving. Sanji knows that Usopp can hold his breath for a reasonable length of time.

“Amazing...” Nami breathes in awe as she looks around the cavernous space.

“What even are these? I mean, I know what they must be but I don't recognize them.” Zoro says rather confusingly.

“You've seen these before. It's sea-crystal. It's in my crown and my mother's necklace, Zeff's crown, in almost everyone’s jewelry... it's everywhere.” Sanji says, rolling his eyes.

“I thought that was sapphire.” Zoro frowns as he treads water.

“No, idiot.” Sanji sighs, hauling himself out of the water and delicately onto the pointed floor.

“Sanji... you don't have many witches in Baratie do you?” Nami asks him slowly, her hand running along the smooth surface of a crystal.

“No, not really. Also, Zoro never told me that you were a witch!” He exclaims, stunned at himself that he'd forgotten to say anything about Nami's show of power earlier. He supposes that nearly being eaten by a dragon excuses him a little, but still.

“Oh?” Nami asks, raising an eyebrow at Zoro.

“He didn't ask.” Zoro shrugs and Sanji JUST resists the temptation to hurl a rock at him.

“It was so SO amazing. That lightning and the storm and... you're a goddess and as talented as you are beautiful!” He exclaims in wonder.

“It was incredibly cool!” Usopp agrees.

“Well, thank you.” Nami smiles, sounding humble but the smile on her face is undeniably pleased.

 

“Beautiful talented ladies should be told how beautiful and talented they are.” Sanji asserts with a flourish and Zoro punches him in the knee. Sanji responds by kicking water in his face.

“If I could interrupt.” Nami says sternly and Zoro freezes and sinks a little lower in the water under Nami's gaze, but he doesn't look happy about being told what to do, even if it's not an actual order Nami's intentions are clear.

“Like I was saying, you don't have many witches in Baratie. I think I know why.” Nami says thoughtfully as she swims to the edge of the water and pulls herself up and out of it. She carefully walks to the crystals on the walls, avoiding those on the floor, and looks at them.

“You call them, shee-kis-tell?” Nami says, glancing at Sanji.

“Sea-crystal.” He repeats carefully.

“Baratian is the worst language.” Zoro declares, starting to haul himself out of the water.

“No it's not.” Sanji snaps and shoves Zoro back in the water with a foot to his face. That'll teach him to badmouth Baratian! Okay it probably won't teach him not to do it, but it'll do as punishment for now.

“Well, whatever you call them I'm guessing that you don't know what they do.” Nami says with a wave of her hand, as if to disperse their bickering to make her point clearer.

“Do? They don't do anything. Right Usopp?” Sanji asks, turning to his nakama.

“Not that I know of.” Usopp answers, hauling himself up on the rock and nearly spiking himself on one in the process.

“It's an- stone.” Nami says, Sanji doesn't understand the middle word.

“A what?” He asks, looking at Usopp.

“Illusion.” Usopp says in Baratian and then repeats the Tsukian word, “It's a kind of magic.”

“Illusion magic makes you see things that aren't real. Or... it makes you think that you do. It changes your thoughts, really good illusion witches can even make you forget about having seen something that's actually there. That's even more powerful than making you see something that's not there.” She explains and Sanji is warmed by the enthusiasm in her eyes even if he doesn’t quite understand her words.

“But what does that have to do with witches?” Usopp asks before Sanji can manage it.

“Witches aren't born with their powers, we get them when we're teenagers. We all have a dream about our kind of magic and it teaches us how to connect to our magic. Then we can learn on our own, or be taught. I'm self taught.” Nami says and Sanji wonders if that's a point of pride for her or if she wishes that she had a teacher.

“Okay... but... how does that connect to the stones?” Zoro asks and Sanji is relieved to know that Zoro doesn't know.

“I mean, I know that an illusion stone stops you from falling for illusion magic, but what does that have to do with learning if you're a witch or not?” He adds.

“The dream isn't real and it's magical, or it's supernatural at least. Anything that involves seeing anything or knowing anything outside of your own head would be cut off by this. No one could get into your mind if you had these on for protection. If your whole country is rich with these things then no wonder you don't have many witches.” Nami says with a shake of her head.

“Sanji's crown has a big one of these right here.” Zoro says thoughtfully, touching the point in his head where Sanji's crown has the stone and also where Zoro's mark on his forehead comes to a point.

“I guess someone knew what this stuff was then, that would protect Sanji from any illusion magic, in fact with that kind of placement it’d probably protect him for a while even when it was off. This kind of stone is so rare in Shimotsuki though... this place is worth a fortune!” Nami says with her eyes shining bright.

“It's worth a lot here too. These darker ones... they're only owned by royalty. I've never seen so many of this quality in one place.” He muses, turning his back to the others and reaching up and touching one above his head. The light from the small cracks in the ceiling is shining through it and it glows brilliantly blue like the very ocean it is named after.

“Hey, you should have something made from this too! You're royalty!” Usopp says brightly to Zoro.

“I don't really do fancy glittery things. I don't want to look like the people in those stupid balls and dinners.” Zoro says grouchily from behind Sanji and Sanji’s mind flashes to Cavendish’s outfits. The very thought of Zoro in those things makes him very nearly burst out into laughter.

“But you're a Prince of Baratie too now...” Usopp says uncertainly.

“That doesn't mean I want some delicate little bracelet or frilly jewelry!” Zoro argues back.

“How about a badass buckle for the belt that holds your swords on? Would royal blue gems in a skull's eyes on your belt be rugged enough for your marimo?” Sanji asks with a smirk, turning around to face Zoro.

“I could... I could stand that.” Zoro says slowly and Usopp snickers into his hand.

Sanji looks over at Nami who is longingly touching the crystals and making sad little noises of wanting at them.

“Do you want to take some of these? I know the horses can't carry too much of it, but if you want it you're welcome to some.” He offers.

“Really?!” Nami gasps with wide eyes, turning to face Sanji with her hands clasped together in glee. It may or may not make her only underwear clad chest bulge appealingly and sidetrack Sanji's mental state.

“Idiot, she was baiting you into that.” Zoro groans, but Nami dashes forward to Sanji, shoves Zoro in the water with a loud splash and hugs Sanji tightly.

“Of course my flower!” Sanji answers her, ignoring Zoro's bitter muttering from the water about people shoving him in the water repeatedly.

He turns to the wall and picks out a good sized crystal, it's about the size and thickness of Sanji's forearm. It's a reasonably deep blue, not as deep as the royal or noble grades but it'd be pretty pricy in the market. He pulls at it a little and then kicks it with calculated force and snatches it out of the air as it dislodges from the wall. He turns around and places a crystal that is probably hundreds of thousands of years old in Nami's hands.

“It can be shaped really easily so you'll probably get lots of stones out of that. I hope you like it my sweet.” Sanji says sweetly, taking one of her hands and kissing the back of it daintily. Zoro groans and dives back under the water, swimming off and out of the cave.

“Thank you Sanji.” Nami smiles and flutters her eyelashes at him.

“I'm going to go put this in our bags right away! I hope that the horses are back by now.” Nami continues on in excitement and jumps into the water with her prize gem still in her arms. She dives down and swims out of the tunnel and up into the other side.

“You're lucky that Zoro knows you're faithful considering how much you flirt.” Usopp sighs and follows her.

“Beautiful ladies should be told that they are beautiful and treated as the treasures that they are.” Sanji asserts, getting back into the water himself.

“You're never going to change.” Usopp says with a sigh that sounds a little bit fond. The sharpshooter dives below the surface and Sanji lets his grin fade down to manageable levels before following after him.

Sanji spends a few moments more on his own appreciating the inside of the apparently actually magical geode. He looks around wistfully and resolves to come back here the next time that he's at this pass. If Nami has found such a successful route he can't see why they would go the long way around through Drum. Though in all honesty if he was planning this trip he would have just gone by sea and then through Alabaster, it'd be good to see his extended family in their own country. He wonders if this route that Nami has planned has any other geographical surprises for him, it's certainly interesting.

He slides into the water and returns to the lagoon outside. When he does he sees Ace standing there holding Luffy by the stretching scruff of his neck.

“I wanna see the place, you can't go on adventures without meeeee!” Luffy whines, flailing in his brother's arms.

“You'll drown.” Ace sighs.

“But-” Luffy protests and Ace grins wildly for a second before releasing his hold on Luffy.

“Oops, that was a little further than I meant to drop him.” Ace says, looking down at the sinking Luffy who has missed the slight ledge entirely. Right, he'd forgotten that devil's fruit users are cursed by the ocean. That's part of the reason that almost no one in Baratie has those kind of powers, pissing off the ocean isn't something that anyone wants to do.

“Shit, I'll-” Zoro starts to say. He'd already started getting out of the water, but before he can get back in Sanji dives down again.

Luffy is sinking like a rock and the idiot has his mouth open with a long stream of bubbles pouring out. This guy is a complete moron, he could have at least held his breath. Sanji snags him under his arm and snakes his way up to the surface again in the blink of an eye. He pulls Luffy up above the surface and jerks his arms around Luffy's midsection to get the water out of his stupid lungs. When the other man coughs and splutters himself back into breathing he tosses the idiot Zoro's way and his husband catches his nakama easily.

“Idiot.” Zoro says and dumps him onto dry land, echoing Sanji's thoughts exactly.

“We should probably go, at least I've been in the water long enough not to be covered in dragon slime any more.” He says reluctantly. He kind of wishes that the others were there and that they weren't on a time limit. They really need to get off of this mountain before Nami's promised rain shows up and drowns them all.

Still, it'd be awfully nice to have Zoro naked in the water with him like he had the night before. This time the water isn't so cold as to make them both useless and he could really appreciate his husband. Sure he's not planning on having sex with him yet, it's not the right moment yet and he knows it even if he wishes that it was, but it doesn't mean that he can't get his hands all over the other man. Part of him too, a quite large part, wants the opportunity to show off more in front of Zoro. If Zoro's culture values strength and skill so highly then he's hardly going to want to turn down an opportunity to display it is he? But, alas their audience and their time constraints make that impossible.

“We've got the horses now, I got the ones that ran off-” Ace begins.

“Did not! I caught them first!” Luffy squawks in outrage.

“You lost the first one and I had to catch it again!” Ace retorts with a glare.

“Nuh-uh!” Luffy argues back.

Nami makes a pained and long suffering noise and gets up and out of the water. She casually collects her clothes, walks up to the two brothers, smacks their skulls together loud enough for Sanji to hear and then saunters off. Zoro chuckles and grins at Luffy who is still rubbing his forehead in pain. Sanji wonders if Nami has to keep the pair of them in line a lot, if she does then he can see how their four-way nakamaship works so well. He certainly doesn't need Usopp to tell him when he's doing something wrong because, obviously, he never does anything wrong at all. A memory of Usopp prying him away from making a dumb decision to sleep with Zoro before he was ready flashes through his mind but he pushes it away, nope, he never does anything wrong or stupid at all.

Their little group goes back down the steep route down to the plateau with the dead dragon, the journey being a fair bit harder on the way down. Nami is already dressed in clean dry clothes and is stood by her horse flicking her hair dry and adjusting the pack on the horse, probably securing her new prized gem.

Sanji can wear his boots again, he realises that Franky must have cleaned the slime off of them for him, something that he'd forgotten to do. The rest of Sanji's clothes however need to dry out and he should change into clean and dry ones. Johnny and Yosaku are back with their horses so Sanji stops by the pack horses to retrieve his towel and then pulls Seafoam away from the group of horses near the pair. He throws his already removed wet clothes over her saddle and rubs down his body as best as he can. He's pulling out his clean dry clothes as he hops about trying to dry one foot and then the other at the same time as setting the clothes out. Seafoam turns her head and nibbles on his hair with her soft mouth, pushing her velvety nose against Sanji’s cheek. He laughs, still slightly ticklish of the small hairs on her nose, and pushes her head gently away.

 

He glances around and notes that there are not many people about but he still tries to position himself at Seafoam's legs so that anyone walking on the other side of her isn't likely to get an eyeful. He slides of his underwear and stands there completely naked for a moment as he dries the water off of himself. He drops his towel and underwear onto Seafoam's back and is just grabbing clean and dry underwear when he hears this strangled kind of sound.

Sanji looks over and sees Zoro standing just to the side, having clearly walked around Seafoam to get to him. From the fact that he appears to have just looked up from rubbing a cloth over the white sword's scabbard to clean some of the dragon goo off he can guess that Zoro hadn't been paying any attention up until now. Now he is paying a lot of attention.

Sanji's first instinct is to turn and hide himself from Zoro. Despite having stripped around him before he was covered up and Zoro stopped looking when Sanji asked him. Zoro's never actually seen him naked before. But his second thought is that he really wants to be naked with Zoro and as soon as possible. That's not going to happen right now but it's interesting to see the other man's reaction. He goes with his second instinct and doesn't do anything except look at Zoro.

He watches as Zoro's eyes run up and down Sanji's bare body and Zoro looks almost like he's in awe. Sanji will be the first to admit that he looks pretty good but he's not sure that he is good looking enough to warrant the kind of look that Zoro's giving him. Zoro is staring at him like he's walked naked out of the ocean like the visual equivalent of a siren's song, too good to be true and probably not real. Zoro shuts his slightly open mouth and Sanji watches as Zoro swallows, his throat moving with the action.

“I... wanted...” Zoro forces out but then shakes his head and his hands tighten on the weapon that he's holding.

“I mean, we should... horses... that... uh.” He tries again. It’s not even like Sanji is speaking in Baratian, he’s fucking up his own language.

“Distracted are we?” Sanji asks with a grin, oh this is enjoyable.

“Oh fuck me.” Zoro groans and his fists go tense at his sides. Sanji thinks that it's more a curse than it is an invitation but he's not ignorant enough to think that there's no reason why that those were the first words to his husband's lips.

“With this audience?” Sanji says innocently, stepping into his underwear and pulling it up with a roll of his hips and back that is technically entirely unnecessary.

“I didn't mean that. But- no. I meant that we should go.” Zoro answers, his voice breathy and distracted and Sanji keeps track of the way that Zoro's eyes roam over Sanji's legs. It seems like an odd place to fixate on but he supposes he is muscled there and he does have nice legs. He supposes that there's a possibility that Zoro is more of a leg guy than an ass guy but when he gives that a test by turning around enough to show him part of a view, under the pretense of getting his trousers, Zoro looks just as strained so maybe it’s a tie.

“Really?” He enquires with casualness that he doesn't feel. In all honesty he's teasing himself now as much as he is Zoro. Seeing how much he's wanted by the other man makes it pretty difficult to resist obliging Zoro and letting the prince get his hands on him.

“Yeah, Nami said that the storm will be here and we should get, should get going.” Zoro says as he trips over his words a little. He starts taking a few distracted steps closer. Sanji slides into his trousers and it's a good thing too, if Zoro keeps looking at him like that it'll be a challenge to get them to fit with any ease.

Zoro comes closer so that he's only a step away from Sanji. Cautiously he reaches a hand out, watching Sanji for any signs of the no that he's not going to give. Zoro's warm hand comes to Sanji's hip and when his thumb brushes over Sanji's hipbone Sanji’s eyes slide shut and he has to remind himself of who is teasing who here.

“We'd better go then. Put this away for me would you?” Sanj says playfully as he steps out of Zoro's grip. He pulls the towel off of Seafoam's back and dumps it on Zoro's head. Sanji pulls his shirt on and starts innocently putting his clothes on Seafoam's back to dry, hung onto the back of her by one of his luggage straps.

Zoro mumbles some indistinct words in Tsukian and wanders off looking both a little dazed and a little put out. Sanji thinks that he may have cut himself on that double edged sword of flirting there but it was completely worth it. He suspects that when he and Zoro have their first time that the other man will absolutely pay him back for all of his teasing. Sanji isn't even a little bit sorry for that.

Before too long everyone is on horseback and their group heads out down the other side of the mountain, although the horses all give a wide berth to the dragon carcass. Sanji wonders what else their journey has in store for them.

**  
  
**


	18. Chapter 18

Much of the rest of the day is spent navigating the horses down the mountain, a harder feat for the animals than going up it. Zoro regrets leaving the dragon carcass behind. He dearly wishes that he could have spent time working out how the creature ticked. Even more than that he was impressed enough with its hide to want some for himself. The dragon's writhing made it harder for him to get his sword through its neck when his plan had been to cut its spine, but the main factor was the scales which were tougher than any metal he'd ever seen. They were small, each one about the size of his thumbnail which made it harder to get a weapon in there. He has to admit that when he looked at the pure white scales when the dragon was dead his mind had flicked to Sanji. Sanji insists on wearing white so much, something that will certainly set him apart in Shimotsuki, but he needs to get the other man in armour. The thought of getting Sanji in white scaled dragon armour was perfect. It would be as tough as he is but still fucking up Tsukian expectations, that would suit  Sanji perfectly.

The blond is way up ahead, trying to hold a conversation with Luffy. Sanji's Tsukian skills have jumped miles in the last few days, evidently his exposure to Tsukian all around him was helping. All the same he's far from perfect and Luffy often talks at a mile a minute and is grammatically incorrect a lot of the time. Zoro hadn't really noticed it but he'd been speaking far more properly in Tsukian since he had been in Baratie, he kept his grammar strict and his pronunciation clear for Sanji. Hearing normal Tsukian around him feels almost odd. Robin was always prim and proper with her speech so changing to the casual Tsukian of his friends and nakama is jarring and probably not that easy for Sanji.

“What's he like?” Ace asks suddenly from Zoro's side.

“You mean Sanji?” Zoro says, looking over at Luffy's brother.

“Who else?” Ace snorts with a roll of his eyes.

“Go talk to him and find out yourself.” he answers.

“Yeah, but I wanna know what you think. We've stayed pretty close to your tents for a bit and Luffy and I were just down the hall and the inn, so either Sanji and you are super quiet or you're not getting any. That's interesting, but I don't think that he's gonna tell me that.” Ace laughs.

“What makes you think that I'll tell you that?” Zoro frowns at him.

“You haven't consummated anything?” Kaku's voice pipes up and his friend suddenly urges his horse to Zoro's side. Apparently this isn't a conversation that's going to go away easily. At least Sanji is a fair distance up front.

Zoro looks over at his friend and sees that Kaku is looking at him with burning curiosity. His nakama have refrained from asking him but he wonders if Robin has passed on knowledge of Sanji's culture and so they know what to expect.

“No, you're not going to have to worry about overhearing anything for a while. It's fine.” He answers. Hopefully that will get them off of his back without him telling them anything that he doesn't want them to know. What's between him and Sanji should stay between him and Sanji, at least for this audience at any rate.

“I'm sure it'll work out.” Kaku says brightly and Zoro looks over to see his friend smiling widely for the first time in a while.

“It's good to see you happy again.” Zoro grins. His friend looks startled for a moment before beaming.

“I'd been worried about you. It didn't seem fair on you, but if everything is like that and you're good, then I'm happy.” The other man answers happily.

“I'm good.” Zoro laughs.

A lot has happened since Kaku and Sanji's duel but his friend hadn't seemed right since then, or even before. It wasn't like Kaku to pick fights. In all honesty though Zoro had come to Baratie with his own reservations about Sanji and the country as a whole. He'd thought that Sanji was going to be this frail thing and he was completely wrong. In the beginning though all he could see was Sanji's negative qualities, he'd hated him, it wasn't until they sparred and started really being able to talk to each other that he liked him. Of course he'd thought that Sanji was attractive from the moment that he saw him, so he hadn't assumed that them fucking would be that big of a deal, he'd figured that if he could just keep Sanji from talking then it would be fine. He's not proud to admit how long it took him to get to a better place with Sanji, but everything new that he learns about the man makes him feel closer and closer to him. He's still annoying and he still has big flaws that genuinely irritate him, but that's overshadowed by how much he genuinely likes his husband. Perhaps it's unreasonable for him to have expected his friends to take to Sanji right away, after all Kaku is likely to have thought the same of Sanji too. But by the looks of things Kaku is coming around quicker than Zoro himself had, but then Kaku has always been a bright and easygoing guy, it's one of the things that he likes best about his friend.

“Good!” Kaku laughs as well.

Things aren't ever going to be the same as before and Zoro doesn't want them to be. His life before didn't include Sanji, it didn't include the sense of peace that he'd started to gain in Baratie. He wants those things in his life, he wants more of Sanji and more of his culture, he wants his world to be bigger with all of that in it.

“I can't wait to tell Whitebeard that I saw a dragon.” Ace says after a few moments, looking back up the mountain, not that he can see it from this far down.

“And killed it!” Kaku exclaims and slaps Zoro on the back.

“That was pretty amazing.” Zoro agrees. He can't wait to tell his parents too and he wonders what Zeff will make of it when Sanji tells him. Damn, the King will probably be disappointed that Sanji didn't test it to see what it tastes like. Oh well.

The three hours it takes to get down the other side of the mountain leave him and Kaku time to debate the merits of wide stance versus narrow stance with sword fighting, discuss different cleaning methods and improvements Kaku could have made on his handling of his sword in his fighting with Sanji. The pair of them agree to spar the moment that their group stops for the night and that's just what they do. As soon as have they had their horses tied up the pair of them launch into the relatively large area of grass and draw their swords.

“Your, nhg, accuracy is way better than before.” Zoro grunts out, just blocking Kaku's sword strike with his own. He twists and bats the other incoming blade away with the sword in his right hand before lunging in with a strike that Kaku just dodges.

“You're quicker!” Kaku exclaims gleefully and dances back out of Zoro's reach, moving out of the way of Zoro's swipes.

The pair of them exchange blows and though it's not as exciting as his spar with Sanji the night before it's more than fun enough to set him grinning and get a thorough burn through his muscles. In all honesty he wants to see how long he can go on fighting, Kaku was always very skilled at longer battles, he'd won fights before by dragging out the length of the matches and getting his opponents to burn themselves out.

“I missed this.” Kaku laughs, ducking under a swing of Zoro’s sword and springing away with his amazing jumping skills.

“Yeah, me too.” Zoro agrees. As much as fighting Sanji is amazing it’s good for his training to fight other swordsmen, it’s fun too!

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Kaku asks a little breathlessly, attacking with a blow that Zoro parries with relative ease.

“You just did.” He answers with a laugh but slows down a little. If Kaku wants to talk and fight they should go a little easier. Kaku rolls his eyes and thrusts his sword in Zoro’s direction a little faster than normal, clearly in retribution for Zoro’s smug answer.

“This marriage, it’s an alliance between Baratie and Shimotsuki.” Kaku says.

“You knew that already.” Zoro replies, stepping back from Kaku and watching the other man’s footwork to guess his next move. The two of them pause for a moment or two, sizing each other up.

“What I mean is that it’s a contract, not a real marriage. Is the King really going to demand that you stay with someone that you had to be married to for an alliance instead of something real? You didn’t even meet him before you married him.” Kaku points out.  

“It doesn’t matter what my father says.” Zoro grunts as he slams his sword into Kaku’s.

“Wedding vows are a promise and I don’t go back on my promises. Besides-”

“OI! Zoro! Go hunting with Sanji for dinner!” Nami shouts across to him, cutting their swordfight and their conversation short.

“Damnit.” Zoro mutters unhappily, sheathing his swords and straightening up out of his fighting stance. Sanji looks across at them in some surprise and his eyes lock with Zoro's for a moment.

“Nami, no, it's fine, really. I don't need his help, he can keep doing that.” Sanji smiles with a shake of his head.

“Are you saying that I wouldn't be any use to you?” Zoro frowns, walking closer to his nakama and husband.

“Did I say that, idiot?” Sanji retorts, his eyes narrowing at Zoro. Sanji glares at him, can he not get through a single conversation with this man before Sanji insults him?

“What are you calling me an idiot for? I'm only trying to help, you ungrateful moron.” He says, glaring right back at Sanji.

“I don't need your help, I'm perfectly capable of going hunting for food on my own. I'm the one who comes from the country that specialises in food and survival skills, I hardly need you.” Sanji snorts and Zoro's fists clench.

“Well you've never left your own country! You don't know how to hunt here! If anything I'm the one who should be going, I don't need you!” He barks angrily. Honestly, he's been travelling and going on missions and campaigns for years, he knows how to survive just fine.

“A hunt is a hunt, if you have to claim that you're special just because you've been in some slightly far away forest I think that's a pretty weak brag.” the other man responds with a huff of laughter.

“How about you BOTH go? You know, like I asked you to.” Nami cuts in before Zoro can argue back again. She looks sharply from one of them to the other and Sanji is the one who wilts first. Zoro isn't sure if it's Sanji's innate weakness to women or if it's his lack of built up tolerance to Nami's glares. Zoro is certainly more used to Nami's angry demands on him, but even he mostly knows when Nami means business. Regardless he's unlikely to be able to do anything but hunt now, Nami has ordered him and Sanji has caved, so even if Sanji doesn't actually want him on this hunt he'll drag him along anyway just to comply with Nami.

“Do you two always argue like this?” Kaku questions with a raised eyebrow as he looks between the two of them.

Zoro says no just as Sanji says yes and the contradiction makes both Kaku and Nami laugh at them. He looks around at his friend and nakama in the hopes of silencing their amusement at his expense but it only makes Nami laugh harder and Kaku bite his lip in an utterly failed attempt to stop laughing.

“Come on, idiot.” Sanji sighs and hooks his finger in the front of Zoro's breastplate and pulling him towards the treeline that's not too far away from their camp that got half set up when he and Kaku were sparring. Time flies when you're having fun with swords.

“I'm not an idiot.” He grumbles, following Sanji along.

“Yeah, you are.” Sanji smirks at him and Zoro just glowers at him harder.

“Well, I'm still a better hunter than you.” He argues back.

Sanji pauses and turns around to face Zoro, his eyes narrowing dangerously. The cook sets his hands on his own hips and purses his lips as he seems to evaluate Zoro. He stands up a little straighter under Sanji's stare and stares the other man down.

“Well I say that you should... put your money where your mouth is.” Sanji says, his words slowing down near the end of the sentence.

 

“I should... what?” He asks, squinting at Sanji in complete bafflement. What the hell does that mean?

“Uh, sorry. I just directly translated that.” Sanji mutters looking embarrassed. He repeats his words in Baratian and though they sound more natural and correct in his own language Zoro still has no idea what he's on about at all.

“I still don't know what you're talking about.” He says flatly.

“This isn't going as well as I thought it would. Right, when someone challenges you to put your money where your mouth is they're saying that they're asking you to prove if you can really do the thing that you're claiming.” the blond explains with a sigh.

“What does that have to do with money though?” he asks in confusion. Sanji's eye twitches and he groans in frustration.

“Never mind.” He mutters and stomps towards the wood a little more. Sanji's right, that clearly didn't go as well as he'd thought it would.

“How would you even invent that saying?” He wonders aloud as he follows the blond.

“Shut UP!” Sanji snaps.

The other man comes to a stop at the tree line and whirls around to look at Zoro in pure irritation. Zoro really likes the way that Sanji looks when he's annoyed, it's probably half of the reason why he deliberately agitates him so much. His eyes just flare with this intensity and he becomes sharp in this brilliant way, the whole thing keeps him on his toes because Sanji is likely to break out into a semi serious fight with him and that always keeps his skills polished. Besides, Sanji annoys him plenty too and revenge is great.

“Right, there is more than enough space in this wood for both of us. I'm going to go hunt for something to turn into dinner you can go do whatever you want, I don't need your help, my hunting will be more than sufficient for our group. Besides, I doubt that there's any big predators in these woods, I'm sure you'll be fine on your own.” Sanji says and makes a shooing motion at Zoro with his hands.

Zoro wants to snap that he's perfectly capable of handling himself, no matter how big any predator that he might find, but he's got a better argument to throw at the blond.

“You're sure?” Zoro asks innocently.

“Yes.” Sanji sighs wearily.

“As sure as you were that the mountain had no dragons on it?” He asks, unable to stop the wicked grin from appearing on his face. Sanji's whole expression goes sour and that was absolutely better than simply protesting that he could handle himself.

“You're not going to let that go are you?” Sanji says unhappily, as if he already knows the answer.

“Absolutely not.” He beams in glee. One of the wonderful things about the idea that he'll be spending the rest of his life with Sanji is the thought that he can hold things like this over his head forever. He is going to get so much out of this and he bet it will annoy Sanji more each time he uses it. It's going to be great.

“You're the worst. Get lost, I'm going to go hunting.” Sanji says grouchily and stomps off into the forest.

“Whatever you catch I'll catch something bigger!” He calls after the blond who simply flips him off and continues on his way.

Zoro chuckles to himself and takes a different route into the forest. He can hear Sanji not too far away from him, but the other man's footsteps fade soon enough, either because of distance or Sanji's attempts to be quiet.

The forest is nice and peaceful and he frowns in confusion. This all seems a little pleasant and green for Drum which is where he had thought that the pass led out into, but maybe he's wrong. Sure it's colder than he's used to, but only about the same as Baratie. Then again Nami didn't exactly let them stop right at the base of the mountain, she had led them further away from it to the... uh... left. Either way it was further away from the direction of Sanji's palace. Probably.

In any case the forest of green is peaceful and full of birdsong. He can see the tracks of small creatures here and there, rabbits and the like. He's not really interested in hunting rabbits. No, he wants to catch something bigger.

 

He tracks his way through the forest, crosses a stream and heads further out. He listens in the wind for the sounds of creatures moving and studies the ground for animal tracks as he moves as quietly as possible across it. It's not too long before he hears the rustling of leaves not too far away.

Zoro draws his swords quietly and lowers his stance, putting his centre of gravity as low as he can and moving forward with slow care and caution.

He comes to an outcrop in the forest floor, a clump of the path held together by the stabilising roots of an old oak tree. To its side the ground slopes rapidly down towards a small stream, it's there that he sees the deer. It's a light brown doe with long legs, it looks to be only a few years old but it's certainly not a baby any more. Zoro breathes as quietly as he can and moves past the tree, trying to get down a gentler part of the slope to reach the deer. He's only gone a few paces past the other side of the tree when the deer hears him or perhaps sees him. Either way its head jerks up and it startles, galloping away in the other direction.

“SHIT!” He yells and throws himself down the slope. He hauls ass after the terrified creature and when he gets close enough he leaps and gets one of his swords through its neck. The deer twitches and drops to the ground, dead in an instant.

He's breathing a little hard, both from the exertion of his sprint and from his excitement, this deer isn't huge but it's going to be a damn lot bigger than any rabbits Sanji is going to return with. This will knock that smug look off of the cook's face for sure!

He pulls his bandana from his pocket. Usually he'd wear this around his arm when he's not got it on his head, but he's not going to cover up the marks that Sanji put on him. He'd never do that. So, he's been keeping it in his pocket. He'll have to wash it afterwards but for now it'll do for cleaning deer blood off of his sword.

With that done he grabs the deer by the legs and hauls it up into the air, catching it on his shoulders. He settles the weight and then turns and heads back the way that he came. He's pretty sure that's the way that he came.

The mountain is on the opposite side to him than it was before so he's at least heading back in vaguely the right direction, surely?

 

After some consideration and some time spent walking Zoro isn't entirely sure that he's walking in a straight line. He is still walking downhill though, that has to be good, right? Before too long he comes to a river and he remembers pretty firmly that he crossed a river earlier, so he crosses it again. See? He's not lost at all, he just doesn't happen to know precisely where he is. But what's the point in worrying about minor details that are that specific?

Still, the river doesn't look like the same part that he went through earlier so he figures that he'll walk along it in the direction of the mountain until he recognizes it then he'll head straight again to get back to their camp. This navigation stuff is easy, he doesn't know what Nami complains about.

He hears a large crack, a snap and some kind of cut off shriek. Zoro's heart leaps into his throat, those aren't good sounds, especially as Sanji is out here! For all that he was teasing the cook about Sanji having claimed that there were no predators here he hadn't thought that Sanji might fall victim to one. They were stupid to have split up though, they had just fought a dragon and it wouldn't be inconceivable at all for younger dragons or even different kinds of dragons to live in these woods so close to the mountains! Sanji fought a dragon today but as part of a team, alone and surprised he doesn't know if Sanji can do that! His husband is strong, incredibly strong, but a dragon is still a dragon! He sprints along the river bank, the deer on his shoulder jostling him with every leap and bound that he makes.

“SANJI!” Zoro yells and keeps running in the direction that the noise had been.

“SANJI!” He calls again.

“Zoro?” comes the distance muted reply.

Zoro sprints some more to catch up with him and finally bursts dramatically into a clearing by a river to see a surprised looking Sanji staring at him.

“Are you okay?” Sanji asks, looking completely confused as to Zoro's ragged breathing and the fear for Sanji's life at the jaws of an apparently entirely imaginary dragon.

 

“I thought... maybe... nothing.” He pants out.

Sanji stands there and slowly, oh so slowly, raises the most skeptical eyebrow at Zoro that he's ever seen. Sanji shouldn't be able to look so judgemental with eyebrows that stupid but somehow he's managing it.

“Well don't strain anything by thinking too hard there, moss hair.” Sanji snorts at him.

“What was that sound? Oh, you caught a deer.” Zoro says, answering his own question. The shriek must have been from the deer. He can see a pretty large injury on its shoulder before he sees it’s broken neck, it looks like Sanji can't always get as clean a kill as Zoro can with his weapons.

“Yeah. It looks like you did too, I guess you're not completely useless. Let's see it.” Sanji says, beckoning Zoro over.

Zoro glares at Sanji and stomps over to the other man. He's not got his hands free to swipe at him so the temptation is to kick him, but that's like getting into a sword fight with a butter knife, Sanji can out kick him by far and that's not a competition that he wants to start. There aren't a lot of things that Zoro will openly admit to Sanji being better at than him and there are a huge number of things that he'll contest in that category, but kicking things isn't one of them.

He drops his deer on the floor by Sanji's and looks at the pair of them.

“Mine's bigger.” He says after a moment.

“I- WHAT?! Are you out of your mind? Look, look at mine, it's definitely bigger!” Sanji protests loudly. He tugs his deer about on the floor so that it's lined up with Zoro's. Zoro continues looking at the pair. From nose to little tail his deer is absolutely bigger, Sanji is deluding himself if he thinks otherwise. They're both does and about the same age, for all Zoro knows the two animals could well be siblings. Either way, his is the bigger one.

“No way, look mine is bigger. Maybe if you get that hair out of your eyes you'd be able to see that.” He argues, gesturing from the length of his deer.

“My hair is perfect you style deficient moron. And sure, yours is longer perhaps, but I can't cook with bigger vertebrae, it's meat that I need and mine is clearly more muscular and bigger, see?” Sanji points out, crouching down and slapping his hand on his deer's flank and leg.

“Your deer is fat, my deer will have more muscle from carrying its longer body around, everyone knows that. You're just being stupid because you don't know when to give up an argument, you can't stand to be wrong, that's all.” Zoro shrugs.

He perhaps should not have closed his eyes in his apathetic shrug because if he had kept his eyes open he would probably have seen that whipcrack fast kick that Sanji just threw at him. As it is his ribs hurt and he's left a deep impression in the bank on the opposite side of the river.

 

Zoro stands up and draws his swords, sparring with Kaku is fun but he's yet to find any fight more satisfying than those he has with Sanji.

“Bring it blondie.” He grins, putting Wado between his teeth.

“I am going to kick your ass.” Sanji growls, stalking closer to him.

“If that's what you need to tell yourself.” Zoro retorts, getting his footing on the same side of the river as Sanji. His boots are wet now from walking through the shallow part of the river so he'll have to remember to watch his footing.

“Oh fuck you, I'm not going to go easy on you.” Sanji snarls and leaps. The blond opens with a straight kick to Zoro's chest which is easily blocked with two swords, the attack might be straightforward but only an idiot would underestimate its strength.

“I wouldn't dream of asking you to.” He growls back with excitement humming through his body.

He shoves Sanji back and then goes for a two sword slash that Sanji fluidly ducks under. The blonde is trying to get inside Zoro's attack radius and make it harder, if not impossible, for him to attack him. He's wise to that though and the cook's flexibility is one of his strengths, if he lets Sanji get too close into him then the blond will absolutely have the advantage. He jumps backwards, putting the cook back where he wants him and smacking him in the back with the flat of his blade as he goes. That won't hurt the prince, not really, but it'll sting and annoy him plenty. Aside from the fact that making Sanji lose his composure is one of Zoro's favourite pastimes but it also gives him an edge in a fight, an irritated Sanji is sometimes a sloppy Sanji, not often though.

Sanji dodges another swing of Zoro's swords and turns his back on Sanji in his crouched state. Zoro has a split second of wondering what the hell Sanji is doing before he sees the mule kick flying right at him. He dodges at the last moment but the other man still catches him in the upper arm with the kick and it's enough to tip Zoro off of his balance. Sanji follow it up with a scythe like kick that Zoro has to work really hard to protect himself from. His recovery is uneven and apparently unpredictable as he manages to catch Sanji in the leg with his sword. It's not a deep cut at all, just a surface wound, but between that and the damage to his clothes he can tell that Sanji is seeing red.

After that point the attacks from both of them come quick and fast, both of them focusing on speed and creativity rather than power. The fight comes to an abrupt end when Sanji parries a downward slice of his sword which sends the blade into Zoro's deer.

“You stabbed our dinner!” Sanji exclaims in dismay, dropping his guard entirely to peer down at the deer. With some disappointment Zoro realises that their fight is probably over.

“I stabbed it to kill it, what difference does it make?” he says grouchily.

“The point is that if you had stabbed it a little lower you would have cut its digestive system and risked contaminating the meat!” Sanji snaps at him and leans down to examine where the blade is. Zoro's eyes slide over to Sanji's ass. It's impossible not to stare when the cook doesn't lean down to look at something like a normal person, no, he just bends straight down at the waist with straight legs. It's like he's offering himself up to Zoro, and seeing as Zoro isn't going to grab the blond's ass he has no choice but to stare at it. It's such a nice ass too, he must get his hands on it as soon as he possibly can.

Zoro shoves the unhelpful and completely distracting thoughts from his mind and retrieves his weapon from their soon to be dinner. He wipes the blade clean on the doe's fur and sheathes his sword with a sigh. He meanders across the clearing and starts looking around, trying to see which way that they had originally came from and subtly trying to look for clues as to how Sanji had got to their clearing. If he could follow Sanji's trail like he could follow animal trails then maybe Sanji wouldn't notice that the world had a habit of moving around on him.

Suddenly there's a foot in the back of his knee and then the other one and before he can react his back is hitting the floor with enough force to knock all of the air out of his lungs and leave him gasping. Sanji appears in his view of the sky above him, his face scowling but also smug.

“That's for stabbing our dinner, and for cutting me and ruining my- AUGH!” Sanji's smugness turns into a yell as Zoro wraps his hand around said trousers at Sanji's knee and yanks him down. If the blond is going to play dirty then so is he. Sanji hits the grassy ground with an ungraceful thump and Zoro takes the opportunity to roll over him and pin him down.

He jams one knee into Sanji's leg, though he's careful not to do it to the leg that he cut Sanji on. He presses his forearm into Sanji's chest, pushing into just below his collarbones, with that much force it'll be hard for Sanji to curl upwards and throw him off.

“That's not very honourable, kicking a man when he's not expecting it.” He growls at Sanji, getting in close and glaring down at him.

“That's not very smart, dropping your guard after doing something so dumb and worth retaliation, is it? It's your fault for being an idiot, grass head.” Sanji retorts, glaring back at him just as hard.

Zoro wants to protest at yet another insulting nickname but as he looks down angrily at his irritating husband on the forest floor below a perfect idea occurs to him.

“You're smiling. I don't like that smile what are you doing?” Sanji says quickly, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Zoro grins menacingly and makes sure that he's got Sanji properly pinned. He rips up a handful of grass from the ground and gives Sanji his most devious smirk.

“Grass head huh? You keep calling me that but maybe we should match.” He purrs and moves his grass filled hand towards Sanji's hair. He's going to crush it in there so hard that it'll be green for weeks, Sanji's stupid blond hair will absolutely stain!

“No, no, no! Don't rub grass in the hair, don't you turn me green, don't you DARE!” Sanji shouts, squirming and flailing to try to get free. He flings one leg around Zoro's hip and starts shoving at him with his knee to try to push him away.

“You can't stop me, you'll be the grass head now!” He taunts, pressing his hand against Sanji's stupid fringe.

“Noooo!” Sanji wails, arching up and trying to duck out of his reach by getting further down and up. Only... only the effect of that is that Sanji has pressed nearly every inch of his body up against Zoro's and suddenly between that and the leg wrapped tight around Zoro's hips Zoro finds himself thinking of something entirely different. His hand un-tenses of its own accord and the grass falls free, he looks down at the curly browed idiot pressed against him and sees the moment that Sanji realises their compromising position. Sanji relaxes a little so he's not so tense but he's still flush against Zoro's body.

“I... didn't think this through.” Zoro mumbles as embarrassment flushes up his neck. He might feel awkward at pinning his husband down like this, especially as they're not all that far from the others and as well that he knows that this isn't going to go anywhere. Sanji wants to wait for the perfect time and it's sure as hell not going to be on the dirt and grass in the middle of the woods after Zoro has threatened to turn his hair green.

“No, you didn't.” Sanji smiles smugly, clearly pleased at Zoro's mistake.

 

Zoro moves to pull up and away but Sanji's strong leg around his hip is making that more than a little difficult. He's about to snap at the moron that he’s married to when Sanji pushes himself up on his elbows and kisses him slow and sweet. Zoro really doesn't have the willpower, or in all honesty the motivation, to not kiss Sanji back so it's not long before he's completely draped over the other man, the hand that was pressing him into the ground now skirting up and down the other man's side. He can feel Sanji's muscles there, the strength that affords Sanji his perfect balance and grace, the kind that keeps him stable so that he can put everything that he has into his kicks.

The two of them occasionally break away from kissing, the pair of them getting out of breath with excitement and Sanji getting distracted with mouthing at Zoro's neck or his earrings. But when Sanji comes back to him this time he doesn't kiss him right away, instead he gets really close and presses his tongue curiously to the spot that he bit Zoro on before. Zoro's breath hitches and he remembers Sanji's teeth pressing into him, just enough to draw blood. It hadn't knowingly been an invitation then but right now he's begging Sanji with everything that he has that this time it will be. He keeps trying to remind himself that just because he wants nothing more than to have that with Sanji it doesn't mean that Sanji has any intent to do that any time soon. He absolutely respects Sanji’s decision mentally but his body is screaming at him for it. It's beyond frustrating.

“Ah, Zoro.” Sanji pants, his hot breath on Zoro's skin.

Zoro should be able to come up with some coherent response but kissing the unbelievably pale skin of as much of Sanji's shoulder that he can reach around the collar of his shirt is more important right now.

“Wait, wait.” Sanji says a little breathlessly and it takes Zoro a few moments of immersing himself in the sensation of Sanji's skin before he fully hears the words. Sanji is speaking in Baratian and translating language while at least half of his brain is just chanting variations of 'Sanji' and 'yes', is hard.

When he manages to coordinate his mind he pulls back and looks down at Sanji. His eyes are dark and even his fringe is askew, Sanji looks pretty ruffled from their actions and Zoro is kind of proud about that.

“In... in Baratie we... shit... we, uh...” Sanji says, stumbling over his words and breaking eye contact with Zoro to look off to the side. There's an interesting flush building on Sanji's cheeks.

“We wait for-” Sanji starts to say and Zoro is struck with a bolt of understanding.

“Until it's the right time.” He finishes for Sanji and the other man looks at him with some surprise before groaning and pressing his hands to his forehead.

“So you got that awful talk too? I thought I was gonna die when Usopp started talking.” Sanji whines in mortification and Zoro can't help but laugh.

“It could have been worse, it could have been Robin.” He points out and Sanji physically winces so much that Zoro feels it through his body.

“I'd rather let you stab me with one of your swords.” Sanji says, dropping his hands from his face.

“I'm not gonna. But I know what you're saying. I wasn't going for that.” he says reassuringly.

“Unless you were offering!” He blurts out suddenly, because if Sanji is then damn if he isn't going to oblige him!

“No, no. Not that I'm not interested because... I...” Sanji trails off and then grits his teeth. He looks Zoro right in the eye and rolls his body up against Zoro and, oh yeah, he can feel just how interested Sanji is in that idea. So it's not that Sanji doesn't want him, it's just that this isn't the time, Zoro had figured that out on his own anyway.

“What I was getting at was whether in Shimotsuki you- oh shit, I don't know the words here.” Sanji frowns and tries to work around whatever it is that he's trying to say.

“Do you do that but... not completely. Do you sort of do it or I don't know, halfway? I'm not explaining this right.” Sanji groans.

Zoro frowns. How the hell do you 'sort of' have sex or 'halfway' have sex? What the fuck is Sanji talking about? Does he mean start and then just stop and entirely quit it before anyone gets anywhere? That sounds like torture!

“I have no idea what you're talking about.” He answers flatly.

“Fuck.” Sanji curses. He tries saying what he means in Baratian but not only does he not understand the words but the stupid way that Baratian works means that if he can't understand how Sanji's sentence is structured then he can understand basically fuck all.

“I didn't understand a word of that.” He says slowly and Sanji looks like he dies a little inside.

“Fuck this, move.” Sanji sighs and shoves his hands against Zoro's chest. Zoro goes along with it because if Sanji doesn't want him there he isn't going to go against his wishes, but he really fucking likes having the hot blond pinned beneath him and he'd like to keep it that way.

Sanji sits up and sits with his legs awkwardly crossed and his arms in the way of what are most likely strained clothing, not that Zoro is in any better state.

“Okay, this isn't entirely right but let's try this again. I know that in Baratian our word for fuck means something different from our word for-” And Sanji flicks from Tsukian back to Baratian to a word that Zoro doesn't understand.

“One of them is less emotional than the other I suppose. Whatever, we can deal with the finer language details later and just use fuck, even though it’s not quite the right word. What I want to ask is do Tsukians have anything in between not fucking at all and actually fucking? Because I want-” and there Sanji flicks back to Baraitan into something that Zoro doesn't understand at all and then back to Tsukian “but I don't want to fuck you. Not right now anyway.” Sanji finishes.

Zoro frowns and tries to run over what Sanji is saying. Something between fucking and not fucking?

“Ugh. Forget it, I've managed to completely kill whatever mood we had here. I swear if I have to have the most mortifying vocabulary lesson with Usopp any time soon I'll-”

“Oh shit! You want me to blow you!” Zoro blurts out the second that the idea comes into his head.

“I... don't know what that means.” Sanji grumbles, looking exceedingly put out.

Zoro kind of agrees, their stupid language barrier has absolutely killed the natural flow of what they were doing but if Sanji is asking him what Zoro is thinking that Sanji is asking him then he is willing to put up with all kinds of awkwardness to get there!

“Sometime we need to work out the words for everything, without Robin and Usopp.” He says firmly and Sanji nods with wide, horrified eyes.

“But right now, I think I know what you're getting at. You want me to fuck you, just not right now.” He says and watches with interest at the way that Sanji's eyes widen, his back goes a little straighter and he hears Sanji breathe in sharply. He can't help but grin at how much Sanji is into the idea of that happening someday soon.

“But, as long as we don't do that, I can use my mouth on you right here.” He says smoothly, moving forward onto one hand and sliding the other up Sanji's leg until gets to the bulge in his trousers that Sanji was trying to hide. Sanji makes a little high pitched noise that Zoro can't believe came from him and he's only just able to resist laughing at the other man because of the imminent possibility of getting to wreck the cook completely.

“Yes, holy shit, yes. But… just that? Not... more, you're sure?” He asks a little warily.

“You don't trust me to have some control?” He asks, taking his hand back. If that's what Sanji is saying then-

“No! I trust you!” Sanji insists, lurching forward and clutching his hands at Zoro's shoulders.

“I just know that we've not really got the words down.” He says a little more gently.

Sanji is kneeling in front of him, his hands on Zoro's shoulders and every worry that he has written plainly across his face. Sanji isn't exactly a stoic man, when he's angry or excited it shows easily, in that respect he's an open book. But when it comes to reading things that Sanji is uncomfortable about or uneasy with it suddenly becomes very difficult. Right now though he can see that Sanji is openly worried. Zoro puts his ego aside and thinks that Sanji is telling the truth, it's not that Sanji has a lack of trust in him but more that he's worried about miscommunicating and going further than he wants to. He highly doubts that Sanji thinks that Zoro won't listen if Sanji tells him to stop, but perhaps Sanji wants to make it clear how far this is going to go because he isn't sure that he'd have the willpower to stop and risk ruining his own first time.

He nods and reaches out putting his hands on Sanji's hips and for a moment the blond looks uncertain.

“So tell me if anything is wrong and say no if you need to.” He says easily.

Sanji stares at him wide eyed and Zoro starts to wonder if he's said the wrong thing or if he's presumed too much. Maybe Sanji was right and they really lack too much of the right vocabulary to negotiate this thing properly.

“If you still want to.” Zoro says uneasily, his hands coming off of Sanji's hips.

Sanji seems to jolt into life and flings himself forward, mashing his mouth against Zoro's with very little grace but alot of fucking feeling behind it.

“You are wearing far too many clothes right now.” Sanji manages to say in between fierce kisses.

 

“I could say the same.” He grins pulling Sanji closer by his hips like he’d intended to earlier. His action makes the blond topple back on his ass as he does it. Sanji seems to flick between pleased at Zoro's words and displeased at being made to fall over, he seems to settle on pleased though.

“You first.” Sanji says quickly and before Zoro can react Sanji has his hands up under Zoro's shirt and is pulling it up over his head.

“Hey! Give me a little warning!” Zoro argues back out of reflex.

“Maybe I'll just leave you like that,” Sanji says and pulls the back of Zoro's shirt under his chin, effectively trapping his head in there.

“I've got all of the good parts up here free at least.” Sanji says in a sultry voice, running greedy hands over Zoro's abs.

Okay, no, he needs to get out of his shirt right now. He struggles out of it and flings it across the grass as Sanji laughs at him.

“Idiot.” Sanji snickers and shuffles and climbs into Zoro's lap.

“Now you're wearing too many clothes.” Zoro says firmly and gets his hands on Sanji's fancy green shirt. Honestly, the thing has fancy little leaves stitched into it and shiny green beads on it. What is he going to do with this man? Well, he knows what he's going to do to him really soon, so he supposes that the shirt can't be that bad. He’s halfway through pulling it up and off of Sanji when the blond speaks.

“Zoro!” Sanji gasps in offence, making Zoro's hands freeze.

“You can't take the clothes off of a Baratian so casually, you'll offend me.” Sanji says sternly and fixes Zoro with an unforgiving glare. Zoro squints at him suspiciously.

“You're lying just to fuck with me.” He says suspiciously and Sanji bursts out laughing.

“I couldn't resist! You've got better at telling when I am.” Sanji says still laughing a little.

“I assume that you're trying to piss me off most of the time.” Zoro answers and stares at the stunningly pale skin of his husband's midsection. He admires the sharp planes of his muscles and the way that the defined line of them dips below his belt. He can't help but wonder if Sanji will go darker when he spends time in Shimotsuki.

“See anything you like?” Sanji snorts. “Seriously, you saw me naked only a few hours ago.”

“Do you know how long it took me to think straight again after that? You did that deliberately.” he accuses but leans in and kisses Sanji's bare skin anyway.

“No, I just saw the chance and... and ran with it. Oh that's nice.” Sanji sighs, his hands resting on Zoro's chest and his head tipping to the side to give Zoro more room. Sanji's skin is so smooth and as he runs his hands up and down Sanji's defined back it just feels better and better.

“You're more muscled than you look.” Zoro remarks idly.

“Careful, that sounded like an insult. Besides, I have to be or I couldn't kick your ass as much as I do and seeing as I win more fights than you clearly I must be.” Sanji says smugly.

“You do not.” Zoro argues, pulling back.

“You really want to argue with me right now?” Sanji grins, leaning back a little and unbuckling his belt.

“If I argue with you does that mean you'll change your mind and keep your clothes on?” Zoro asks warily.

“Do you want to find out, fucker?” Sanji goads him. Zoro isn’t going to take that chance, spite is one of Sanji’s main motivators. The blond falls backwards out of Zoro's lap and lands on his elbows and hips gracefully.

“Help me out here already.” Sanji orders him and kicks him in the shoulder. Zoro glares back at Sanji, even the cook's light kicks are harder than most men can manage if they try hard.

Zoro reaches forward and gets Sanji's trousers over his hips and pulls them down, leaving the cook only in his underwear. He pauses midway down Sanji's thigh and looks at the shallow cut that he had given him in their fight. It had bled a little, he can see the smear of it on Sanji's skin, but it seems to have stopped now.

“Does that hurt?” He asks curiously, pressing his thumb near it and rubbing a bit of the blood away.

“Only if some idiot jams his hand in it. And you didn't think this through either.” Sanji sighs and as Zoro pulls Sanji's clothes down to his knees he realises that he's not going to get any further because Sanji still has his boots on. Damn.

“Maybe I like the boots.” He responds, not willing to give Sanji the satisfaction of being right. All the same he starts to pull Sanji's right boot off, fighting with the straps that keep it tight to the blond's calves and let him kick without worrying about his boots flying off into the sunset with whichever poor bastard he kicked.

“I get the feeling that you're not entirely lying about the boots.” Sanji says thoughtfully and moves his left leg.

Zoro pauses as Sanji moves his shiny booted foot down Zoro's thigh and gently and carefully presses it against the hardness in Zoro's trousers.

“Hmm, what about those black boots of mine that go over my knees to here?” Sanji asks slowly, rubbing his hand a little over his knee. Oh Zoro knows the ones, they're shiny too and his brain immediately provides him the mental image of Sanji wearing them and nothing else, he feels what they would feel like with Sanji holding onto him tight and digging them into Zoro’s hips and back. Zoro swallows thickly and a sweat breaks out on the back of his neck.

“Yeah, I thought so. But this time, get these off.” Sanji orders him with a smug smile and kicks Zoro in the ribs, a little lighter this time though. Zoro shakes his head and refocuses, Sanji might be right about that idea being a thing that he might be interested in, but they have years to play with that idea, he needs to focus on now. He unbuckles the last of Sanji's right boot and yanks it off, flinging it over his shoulder along with the sock that the blond was wearing with it. He switches to Sanji's left and gets that off in record time too and throws it away. With one big movement he gets rid of Sanji's irritatingly in-the-way trousers and throws them off to the side as well, he hears a rustle and looks over to see them lodged in a bush a little way away. Well, Sanji can yell at him for that later, for now there's just one piece of clothing keeping him from seeing Sanji naked again and this time the blond is excited enough to make that a view worth seeing even more than before. He reaches for them but Sanji stops him with a foot in his chest that Zoro knows will be difficult to get away from.

“Hey, hey, why am I nearly as naked as the day I was born and you're only shirtless? That's not fair.” Sanji protests and sits up. Zoro doesn't stop him and Sanji shoves him backwards so that he's the one on his back. Sanji at least has the good sense to start with Zoro's boots and being the prissy bastard that he is he sets them neatly a off to the side in a tidy pair.

He wants to focus on being annoyed with Sanji but having the other man's hands on him, running over his skin and stripping him is something that's played over in his mind far too many times for him to stay annoyed. The idea has kept him company through more lonely and frustrated moments than he can count. Just because he wants to uphold Sanji's idea of waiting until the moment is right doesn't mean that he doesn't think about fucking the blond into his mattress on a daily basis. It doesn't mean that he doesn't try to imagine what Sanji would sound like. He looks up at the man that he's lucky enough to be married to and smiles at the thought that now he's going to get a good idea of what Sanji sounds like. He can hardly wait.

 

“I've seen you like this before when I painted you, but this is... better. I'm not thinking about anything else.” Sanji says slowly once he has Zoro down to his underwear. Zoro's breath freezes as Sanji leans down and kisses the painted marks on his shoulder, kissing each one once. Sanji's path trails down Zoro's arm and Sanji picks up his hand and continues all of the way down, when Sanji's mouth gets to the inside of his wrist for the marks there he wonders if Sanji can feel how fast his pulse is going.

He moves his hand the short distance to Sanji's hair and tangles it in the shorter locks at the back and pulls Sanji down onto him. He kisses Sanji hard and urgently and Zoro knows that Sanji is just as enthusiastic as he is from how breathless he's getting. He slides his free hand down Sanji's smooth and muscled back and grabs a hold of Sanji's ass, just as he'd been thinking about doing earlier. He hadn't thought that he'd be able to do it so soon after thinking it but here he is and he was right, Sanji has a fantastic ass. Sanji clearly doesn't object to Zoro's enthusiasm because he grinds down against Zoro and though he's not quite lined up with Sanji in their underwear he can feel Sanji's hardness next to his. He needs to get his mouth on Sanji and fast because he is far too tempting and for the first time he's actually allowed to do so.

He flips them over so that he's on top of Sanji instead and as fast as he can he's got his hands on the top of Sanji's underwear and is pulling them off with what is probably less grace than Sanji would approve of. Sanji doesn't complain though and for the first time Zoro gets a good look at his prize. He doesn't just stare at him though, that'd be weird. He runs his fingers through the fair hair above Sanji's cock and hums in interest. He thinks that Sanji is actually a little bigger than him, but that just gives him more to stare at. Sanji's skin here is just as fair, or at least it looks like it usually is. For now though Sanji's cock is flushed and more than inviting.

“Have you ever done this before?” He asks curiously as he runs his thumb up and down on the underside of Sanji's cock and he looks up at him to see that Sanji has his eyes closed tightly and his breathing is fast. Sanji opens his eyes at Zoro's question and leans up on his elbows to look at him. Sanji's usually bright blue eyes are almost black with just the tiniest ring of blue around them, Sanji is definitely into this, he's not just going along with whatever Zoro wants.

“Mhn, no. It was... oh... it was a bad idea. If I was with anyone then they could get themselves- and then I'd have to argue that it wasn't mine and...” Sanji trails off. Zoro didn't get that word in the middle there but he can guess that he means that any girl that Sanji was involved with, even just like this, could get pregnant with someone else and make a claim that their child was royalty. That's a shitty thing to do but people do worse things to get into power.

“Probably smart, I only fucked one girl and there's no way she would do that.” He says thoughtfully, knowing that his words are entirely true. Even though he did actually fuck her and not just blow her like he's going to do to Sanji there's no way that she would have told anyone that it was his if she got pregnant. Hell even if he had got her pregnant she still probably wouldn't have told.

“Trusting. And for the record, talking about other people that you've been with doesn't do it for me.” Sanji says with a glare.

He wants to ask if Sanji disapproves of his past with other lovers, Usopp said that Sanji wouldn't care but maybe making his husband jealous right now isn't smart.

“I can think of better things to do with my mouth.” He answers smartly and carefully licks a stripe up Sanji from root to tip. Sanji makes this strangled kind of noise and his head falls back on the floor with a muffled thump.

 

“Good answer.” Sanji groans

 

Considering that Sanji hasn't done any of this before he tries to take things a little slowly to let the other man adjust. He sticks with just moving his hand slowly up and down Sanji's length in between licking at him and kissing his skin there and also on the inside of his thighs. Still, he's impatient to get Sanji into his mouth and between his impatience and Sanji's obvious impatience he doesn't wait as long as he could do.

He's just about to get his mouth on all of Sanji when a thought occurs to him. Sanji hasn't done this before at all and so he most likely doesn't know what instincts to suppress and his husband is remarkably strong sometimes. He takes his hands off of all of the fun parts of Sanji completely, earning him a frustrated whine from Sanji. Instead he grips Sanji's hips harder than he would with any other partner and holds him firmly to the ground. His guess proves right when he takes Sanji into his mouth and is only just able to hold the way that Sanji's hips buck with a strength in his arms and hands that is probably going to leave him bruised for a week or more.

“Oh shit, sorry... I... I didn't mean to... are you okay?” Sanji pants, reaching his hand down and petting Zoro's hair.

He wants to say that if he hadn't been expecting that then Sanji might be fucking Zoro's spine right about now, an exaggeration but it still wouldn't have been fun. However, all of that requires taking his mouth off of Sanji's dick and that's down near the bottom of his list of things that he wants to do right now. Instead he just hums in soothing agreement, the vibrations from that make Sanji gasp.

Everyone that Zoro has been with tastes a little different, but maybe it's just because Sanji has been in the water a lot today but all he tastes of right now is his own skin. It's the same taste that he's got from Sanji's skin before, when he's kissed the other man's skin anywhere. It's perfect somehow and he probably shouldn't be getting his emotionally involved over something so insignificant but his relationship with Sanji seems to be made of things like that.

He keeps things as slow as he can, he likes watching Sanji slowly come apart too much to rush it. He watches the way that Sanji's breath comes hard and fast, he watches the flush that shows perfectly through his too pale skin and he feels a thrill at the way that one of Sanji's legs hooks around his arm and how he presses the heel of that foot into Zoro's back. He can feel Sanji's muscles tense against his sides and it's more than he could have imagined. The stupid thing is that he's done this plenty of times before and yet it also feels like a first time, more than just his first time doing this with Sanji but this feels like a completely different act than with his past lovers. The whole sight and feel of Sanji like this has pushed him closer to his own end than it reasonably should do.

“Zoro, wait, stop.” Sanji pants, his hand on Zoro's hair. Zoro stops immediately, he pulls back off of Sanji and worry claws at his gut. Was Sanji not enjoying it as much as he'd thought or was it suddenly too much for him? Was it too soon? He crouches on his hands and knees and tries to get a better look at Sanji to gauge his reaction.

“Here.” Sanji breathes, having slipped back into his own language. He moves up onto his knees and climbs into Zoro's lap, moving his arms out of the way. He instinctively wraps them around Sanji's back and apparently this is just where Sanji wants to be.

 

Zoro doesn't think to ask what Sanji means by ‘here’, but it's probably something like he wants to be here instead. He doesn't ask though because his mouth is occupied by Sanji kissing him. Sanji seems determined to kiss him as hard as he can, even if his accuracy isn't as great as it was before. Sanji's hand is slowly and distractedly making its way down Zoro's chest, halting whenever they grind together or when he manages to kiss Sanji in just the right way. When Sanji finally gets to where he's going Zoro realises what he's up to. Sanji's hand wraps around both of them and Zoro hisses curses into Sanji's shoulder.

Feeling his dick rubbed tight against Sanji's own feels inexplicably good, more than it should when he considers that what Sanji is doing is just jerking the both of them off at once. He tilts his head down and gets shoved a lot closer to the precipice of orgasm by watching Sanji's long dexterous fingers touching him and moving over him like that. Sanji values his hands so much and having the honour of Sanji using them on him like this is more than he could have hoped for.

He grips Sanji's hips tighter and knows that he's probably leaving indentations in Sanji's skin but he can't help himself. If he doesn't hold onto Sanji he feels like he's going to lose his mind.

“I'll DIE if I... NEVER get there... IMMEDIATELY.” Sanji gasps out in Baratian and Zoro listens to him for a second and then bursts out in stupid fits of laughter.

“Are you fucking up your own language?” He laughs at Sanji. Sanji pulls back a little and gives him what is probably meant to be a glare but Sanji is too close to orgasm to really make it threatening.

“Shut it.” Sanji growls at him in Tsukian and squeezes both of their cocks a little tighter and moves his hand faster, effectively ruining all of Zoro's ability to communicate in any language.

Sanji's hips are bucking against him as much as his hand is moving over them and Sanji's head is almost glued to Zoro's neck with the hardness that he's pressed there. He's gasping and moaning against Zoro's skin, so much so that Zoro feels like when they part he'll have it written on his body. He feels Sanji's body shudder all over, his muscles tensing and then the blond makes this broken noise and his free hand clutches tight in Zoro's hair.

Zoro feels the warmth of Sanji's release against him and it's that sensation that tips him over the edge into his own as well. He lets go of Sanji's hip with one hand and pulls him close, trying to catch his breath but also murmuring probably nonsense endearments into Sanji's neck.

He's not sure whose fault it is but the two of them end up toppled backwards on the grass with Sanji first. He has his thigh between Sanji's legs and his head rested on Sanji's arm. He's still got his wrapped around Sanji's back so they can't stay like this long, not if Zoro wants to keep the feeling in his hand. Right now though he doesn't want to move.

 

“Wow.” Sanji breathes staring up at the sky Zoro laughs and grins against Sanji's skin in agreement.

“You... you need to tell me the word for that.” Sanji says with a stupid smile. Zoro runs his hands across Sanji's smooth stomach, his fingers dipping up and down at each muscled plane of Sanji's abs.

“Which bit?” He asks idly.

“All of it, each bit. Everything. Did I mention that we need to do that again, a lot?” Sanji grins equally stupidly. Neither of them are thinking at full speed right now.

He proceeds to go through the names of everything, though he starts struggling to name parts near the end. Was that a handjob or mutual masturbation? Who knows. He's curled against Sanji's side and Sanji has his legs sprawled across Zoro's. Zoro's been sexually involved with four people before Sanji, only two of them were friends. After he'd had sex with his friends things were fun and friendly, both of them felt good and they trusted each other, they were friends after all. The other two had just been people that he'd met. He'd been more or less completely sober despite how much he had drunk but they were less so, his partners weren't trashed, after all Zoro isn't the type to take advantage of drunk people, but he felt safer as the sober one. He's a prince so it's not like people wouldn't try to assassinate him but Zoro is a good judge of character. All the same it doesn't hurt to be on his guard. He perhaps should have been wiser like Sanji but he isn't the one with a culture that encourages true love before sex, Zoro has needs and he was smart about it.

None of that felt like this, though. He's got Sanji's warm body against him and he can't keep his hands off of Sanji. He feels like he could fall asleep if he wanted to, something that he's never done before. Even with his friends it wasn't as intimate as that. No, this thing with Sanji is still a first in its own right.

Sanji turns on his side so that they're facing each other side to side.

“I'm glad that we got to do something like this, I was worried that we weren't going to get a chance to do anything like this, or that Tsukians did any of this.” Sanji says moving his hand slightly to card through Zoro's hair, his arm still under Zoro's head.

“Why wouldn't we? It's not like Baratians invented that.” Zoro snorts at the idea.

“Hey, you people are the ones who have biting being an invitation. Do you know how hard it is to repress the urge to bite you because you have that odd idea? I don't assume anything about you or this.” Sanji says easily and sits up and moves into standing.

“I'm covered in dirt aren't I?” Sanji asks, though he sounds like he already knows the answer. His shoulder blades and elbows are brown and green with earth and grass, the rest of him isn't much better either. Zoro knows that his body isn't any better.

“Yeah.” He answers with a nod.

“Is it weird that I just remembered we did all of that less than twelve feet away from two dead deer?” Sanji asks again after a moment and Zoro sits up and looks over at them. He had forgotten that they were competing over who caught the biggest deer for their meal before all of this happened.

“I don't know. Who cares? Does it offend your delicate feelings cook?” He answers and grins at Sanji and takes the opportunity to continue to stare at his naked body.

“You're lucky that I still feel too happy to hold that against you.” The blond says flatly.

“I am.” Zoro says, still not quite believing his luck that he's both with Sanji and that he's able to go this far with him. He had figured when he married Sanji that his sex life was over. He wasn't going to fuck a guy that he hated, or at least didn't like, and it's not like they had any need to anyway. But not only did he end up falling for Sanji, the other man felt the same. He wonders if their fathers knew that they would be a good match before they arranged the marriage.

“At least we ended up being close to water so that we can clean up. I'm sticky.” Sanji says, rubbing his fingers below his navel.

 

Sanji saunters over to the shallow stream, it's only just below knee depth here, not enough to swim in and really wash off like they had on the mountain, but it'll do for getting the worst of everything off of them. Thankfully it's rocky on this side and Sanji finds a larger rock to sit primly on to wash up. He's failing to get the marks off of his back though and Zoro can't help but notice that he's not doing it properly. Zoro washes off his own knees, though he's not too bothered about the stains on him, but the longer he watches Sanji the more he realises that Sanji isn't moving right.

“Did I hurt you? You're holding your arm weirdly.” he asks and a spike of anxiety rushes through him. He didn't put pressure on Sanji's precious wrists did he?

“What? No. I just...” Sanji trails off and looks down at his wrist. It's the one with his mark of waves ringed around it. The idea clicks in Sanji's head like a bolt of Nami's lightning going off.

“You don't want it to fade.” He says and Sanji looks up at him, evidently surprised at his guess.

“It's precious to me, and I keep having to wash off. You said that it doesn't last all that long and I'm guessing that it's washing it that makes it fade faster.” He says sadly and twists his wrist this way and that.

“They're not permanent, nothing is.” He says, getting up and walking over to Sanji, slightly pleased to see the way that Sanji's eyes dart down away from Zoro's face and to his body instead.

“We're permanent aren't we?” Sanji says with a frown.

“No.” Zoro answers, but before Sanji can get any further with his offended expression and open his mouth to argue he continues with his answer.

“We're changing. We're different now to how we were yesterday. We won't be the same next week. Everything changes, tomorrow you'll be different and so will I. This, how we are right now, that's not permanent. Nothing is.” He explains.

“As much as Tsukian is a stupid language it can be kind of... poetic sometimes.” Sanji mutters looking off to the side and Zoro smiles at the thought that he thinks he flustered Sanji.

“That's good to know. Anyway, it'll probably have only just faded by the time we get to Shimotsuki and then I'll paint you two marks.” He says with a smile and Sanji's head jerks up in surprise.

“Two?” The other man asks.

“Yeah, you beat Kaku and you just climbed into the mouth of a dragon with me to help kill it.” Zoro answers. How does Sanji think that doesn't count? They killed a dragon.

“Do animals count?” Sanji asks with a confused frown and a glance at the deer across from them.

“Usually no, but that was a giant fucking fire breathing dragon with impenetrable scales. It counts.” He asserts. From the look on Sanji's face he doesn't think that Sanji caught the word impenetrable but it's not like Zoro needs to teach that to him right now.

He watches as Sanji looks down at both wrists and sees the small smile that creeps onto Sanji's mouth. It's not a laughing kind of smile, it's not a mocking one or even a smile from feeling physically good. It's a genuine smile of simply feeling happy, of being content and pleased. Sanji doesn't smile that like all that often but whenever he does it makes Zoro's heart thud in his chest.

One other thing that he notices as Sanji looks down is the trace of green at the crown of his hair. He weighs up whether or not to tell Sanji. It's not as if he put that there but Sanji will probably assume that he did. If he doesn't tell Sanji though he knows that someone else will and then Sanji will be really angry at him.

“You got green in your hair from when you ground it into the grass earlier. I didn't put it there!” He adds hastily. Sanji squints at him suspiciously but eventually accepts Zoro's word for it.

“Great, now I'm going to have to work out how to get my head in this stupid stream without climbing in and getting the rest of me all muddy again.” Sanji grumbles, rubbing at the back of his head.

Zoro purses his lips and looks around for his things. He can see where Sanji pulled his belt off, his swords and the other things hanging on it set carefully by the rest of his things, unlike Sanji's clothes that Zoro just threw around. He goes to his things and notes that one of Sanji's boots is lodged in a bush and his shirt is snagged on a low branch of a tree. Hopefully Sanji's post orgasm good mood is still there when he finds that out. He bends down and picks up his canteen, that was what he'd come over to get. He's got a stream of fresh water right there so he doesn't need to worry about using it.

He returns to Sanji and unscrews the canteen but he stops after he's undone it and has his free hand halfway to Sanji's head.

 

Sanji looks up at him with a confused expression on his face. And Zoro feels a wave of guilt rise up in him.

“What?” the blond asks looking puzzled.

“Here's water. For... for your hair. To get the green out.” Zoro manages to say in stilted and broken sentences that sound really weird in Baratian. He would have been better sticking to Tsukian there but there's nothing that he can do about it now.

“Thanks.” Sanji says, taking it from him. His voice sounds so confused that it almost sounds like a question.

“Were you about to do it for me?” Sanji asks, seeming to cotton on to what Zoro had nearly foolishly done.

“Sorry.” Zoro apologizes.

“This is another weird Tsukian thing, isn't it? What, you can't help get green stuff out of my hair without it being a big deal?” he asks with a quirk of his eyebrow.

“You have a really stupid lack of boundaries. It's something that you'd only do for someone you know, or your kid when they're too young to do it for themselves.” Zoro explains, it's just a level of trust and comfort with someone that you couldn't do with any other relationship. Perhaps if one of his nakama needed it and they physically couldn't do it themselves then he would help but even then it would be incredibly awkward.

“You have really stuck up rules for everything. I don't care, if you want to help out then do. Didn't we say that we weren't going to care much about these kinds of rules for us?” Sanji reasons and turns back to the stream, washing his elbows carefully to get the grass stains off of them.

Zoro wants to, he really does want to. He expects Sanji to adhere to Tsukian ways too much, the way that Sanji treats his nakama and the casualness that Robin told him that the three Baratians agreed to be nakama speaks volumes about how alien it is to him. It's all so normal to Zoro that seeing Sanji not doing those things is jarring, but Sanji must feel the same way in reverse. So if it's not a big deal to Sanji and he's pointed out that the boundaries don't matter to him as long as Zoro wants to do it then he can well... shouldn't he do it?

“It's cold.” He warns Sanji quietly and pours some of the water on the crown of Sanji's head where the faint tint of green is. Sanji breathes in a little sharply when the water hits his scalp but otherwise he doesn't react. Zoro rolls the hair around his fingers and loosens the grass stain and the small bits of grass and dirt in there. Sanji isn't paying him much attention or at least he's giving the impression that he's not. Zoro isn't so convinced though, Sanji knows what this means now so he's sure to be studying it.

He rinses through Sanji's hair again and it looks a lot cleaner for it. His heart tightens in his chest at the idea and the visual of caring for Sanji in such a simple way takes his breath away. This isn't like painting someone, though the physical trust is close, after all if he wanted to he could yank Sanji back by his hair and kill him. No, it's more than that. This isn't gentleness and caring for any real purpose, Sanji could easily do this himself. It's just affection for the sake of affection, something gentle that he couldn't do with someone without being sure that it wouldn't be rejected. It's that level of comfort and ease which makes it something beyond love, though that's an aspect of it. His feelings for Sanji are still mixed and disconcerting. He knows that he loves him, but this feels so easy and he knew that Sanji wouldn't turn him down. How is this happening so soon?

When his mind settles back on the physical task at hand in a mindful kind of way he realises that Sanji has stopped cleaning the rest of himself up and is just sitting there letting Zoro do what he's doing. From his standing position he can see that Sanji's eyes are shut and his mouth slightly upturned in a pleased kind of calmness. He scratches at Sanji's scalp with his short fingernails and a pleased sounding rumble comes from somewhere in Sanji's chest.

“There, no green in your stupidly pale hair anymore.” he announces and caps the now empty water container.

“You call my hair stupid but how much water would it take to wash the green off of you then?” Sanji laughs, standing up and turning around to face Zoro.

Zoro can't help it but the sting of that flashes through him, does that really bother Sanji? He knows that Sanji's cousins certainly held what he was against him but Sanji-

“I was just teasing, don't make that face.” Sanji says quickly and pecks a quick kiss to the corner of Zoro's mouth and soothes Zoro's nerves in an instant.

“We'd better start heading back, this was a pretty long hunting trip.” Sanji says with a tone of insincerity at the words hunting trip. Zoro looks at the redness on Sanji's hipbones and up his sides a little and knows that it'll bruise within the hour and anyone who sees it will likely realise that their hunting trip wasn't just that. Part of him feels proud at that, it's not like leaving a bite mark on Sanji's neck and having the blond walk around with the evidence of his attraction on him but it's a close second.

He grins as Sanji bitches indignantly at the careless way that Zoro scattered his clothes earlier but he's too sated and stupidly happy to care. It's been an incredible day and he feels like their journey is only just getting started, he's going to have so much to tell his family when he gets home.


	19. Chapter 19

When Sanji wakes up the next morning Zoro is still snoring merrily away but Sanji can feel that he stands absolutely no chance of going back to sleep. A lifetime of waking up early to cook isn’t easily broken. Still he feels reluctant as hell to be up this early and wishes deeply, not for the first time, that they had coffee with them. Coffee always makes him more pleasant in the morning but he had decided that it wasn’t a necessity to bring on their lightly packed journey. He had considered forgoing packing a shirt to make room in his personal pack for the coffee but decided against it. Given how frequently he’s had to change or wash his clothes on this trip he’s glad that he turned the coffee down. Okay, he’s not glad at this moment when he would murder a man for coffee but later he will be glad.

He carefully untangles himself from Zoro and gets up out of bed. His husband opens his eyes and blinks blearily at him, Zoro is attuned to waking up whenever something might be wrong.

“Just getting up, shh.” Sanji whispers out of a habit that he’s developed alarmingly quickly. Zoro grunts and rolls onto his side, immediately back to sleep. Sanji has asked Zoro about it in the past and the swordsman has confessed that he never has any memory of these interactions with him.

Sanji stretches with a sigh and feels the bones in his back click a little as he does so. He understands the need for a light and basic travel bed but damn he’s going to be grateful when he gets back to a real bed in Shimotsuki. He ducks outside for a bit and goes through his morning routine of stretches and light exercises. He’d always insisted that it wasn’t really exercise but Zoro pointed out that anything that puts him through a handstand and down into splits without touching the floor was excersise. With that done he returns to the tent and changes clothes for the day, he’s in his palest blue shirt, the lightest one that Usopp would let him bring without risking ruining it completely and one that will no doubt make Zoro roll his eyes. Well fuck him, he’s adapted to a lot of Tsukian culture, even though much of it makes sense, so Zoro can deal with the fact that he’s not going to change his style of dress.

Sanji wanders over to the fire and tops it up with more wood to get it crackling away. The sun isn’t up yet and he’d actually like to see what he’s doing. He finds feed for the horses and gives them breakfast before starting on the morning’s preparations for everyone else’s. Seafoam does the best to follow him as he climbs up the tree that some of them are tethered to. They had stored the deer that they didn’t use up there to keep predators away, it’s both out of reach of them and comes with a built in alarm via the horses. They would kick up a fuss if anything scary came near them. Last night’s deer had been used as much as he could, everyone went to bed with completely full bellies, even Ace and Luffy were sated. He hates wasting food and he’d turned as much of the non fatty meat that he could into jerky but a whole deer was a little more than they could use. He had got Franky and Luffy to return the mostly stripped deer into the forest. Sanji hates wasting food but he knows full well that in the wilderness nothing goes to waste. That deer is probably mostly gone thanks to the hopefully smaller carnivores in the woods. He wouldn’t be surprised if there was a mountain lion or two around though, but they didn’t come near the camp and Sanji had no intention of going near them so everything was okay.

He carries the deer back to the fire and starts butchering it. He starts on new jerky, figuring that he probably has just enough time to dry it in his makeshift oven before they have to leave. After that it’s steaks for everyone. Steak isn’t a typical breakfast food but it’s nutrient high and it’s what’s available. The small voice in the back of his head that’s never gone away reminds him that food this calorific would put off starvation for a few extra days if he ended up in that position again. He grits his teeth and tells himself that it’s not going to happen again and that he’s fine and instead focuses on his knife as hard as he can and drowns out the persistent low grade worry with work.

The smell of sizzling meat wakes the others, or at least it wakes Luffy, Ace and Zoro. After those three are up it’s hard for anyone else to sleep. Usopp had managed to find potatoes last night when he and Zoro were out catching meat and… doing other things. Franky had found fresh herbs and also a decent amount of redberries which Sanji had been surprised to find still in season here. Either way the three Baratians had provided 80% of the food, it would be 100% but Zoro did catch the other deer. Every Baratian knew how to find some food or another, even if a crop failed no one was likely to starve and if they were pushed to that point other areas of the country always immediately shuttled any excess to them. It’s what they do. Sanji wonders how it’s possible that Shimotsuki is in such a bad state as to need their help for something that seems so easy and natural. He’s going to fix that when he’s there, even if it takes a few years of kicking their agriculture in the ass single handedly. He’s not going to let that situation continue in Shimotsuki.

“Sanji, could you boil some water for me? You’ve got the pans.” Franky asks, coming over to where Sanji is sat on the grass between Zoro and Nami.

“Sure, you’ll be the one washing it though, it’s your turn. Why do you need it?” He asks curiously. Franky grins broad and bright and opens his hand to show a handful of fresh mint.

“I found mint and I figured that I’d make Robin tea.” He says brightly.

“Sure. Here you go.” Sanji answers and rummages in the bag for the smallest pan. He hands it over and watches Franky walk off happily.

“What was that about? I heard Robin’s name.” Nami asks, looking over at him and Zoro.

“He’s making tea, just for Robin.” Zoro answers.

“Tea? Am I saying that right?” Sanji frowns, he knew what Zoro was saying from the context but it’s not a word that he’s heard before. Robin has only ever drunk coffee around them but he’s pretty sure that she wouldn’t turn down a mint tea, it’s a little bit of luxury on their journey.

“Tea.” Zoro repeats slowly.

“Tea.” Sanji tries again.

“That’s a colour, somewhere between green and blue. I forget sometimes that you’re still learning, even with your accent.” Nami chips in with a smile.

“Use the back of your throat more.” Zoro suggests and takes another bite of his sliced up steak.

“Tea.” Sanji tries again. Zoro’s stupid guttural language makes him feel like he’s choking up some words.

“That’s right.” Nami says brightly and pats Sanji on the shoulder, sending him into a flutter of hearts and being praised by such a wonderful lady.

“So, tell me if I’m wrong, I guess this could be a Baratian thing, but is Franky flirting with Robin?” Nami asks curiously, looking over at the blue haired man who is stirring the boiling water with the mint in. Ideally he would have a strainer and set the mint in that and pour boiling water over it, but they don’t so Franky is improvising.

“Absolutely. It’s pretty obvious too.” Zoro answers with a laugh. Sanji wasn’t sure that he should answer, Franky is nakama officially now, but if he’s going to be this obvious about it then it’s not like he can keep it a secret. Even if he could Zoro’s already let the cat out of the bag.

“He is. Showing thought through food or drink specifically for one person is pretty sweet.” Sanji agrees with a warm feeling for Franky. It’s nice to see him like this.

“You mean like how you make sure my food is really made specifically for me?” Zoro says with a smirk and pokes Sanji in the ribs with the end of his fork.

“You do a lot of training, I have a responsibility to ensure that you get the right food!” Sanji answers, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly and looking anywhere but at Zoro.

“That’s pretty brave though, flirting with Robin.” Nami muses, her chin in her palm as she watches Franky decant the drink and take it over Robin. The translator seems a little surprised but accepts the drink with a smile. Sanji wonders if she recognises it as deliberate flirting or not. She is pretty versed in Baratian culture but it’s still not her own culture.

“Do you think we should tell him that flirting with a Tsukian woman is dangerous?” Zoro says after a long moment.

“Dangerous how? I mean, if she turns him down it could be embarrassing.” Sanji frowns. Franky sits down next to Robin and starts talking to her in Baratian, telling her about where he found the mint and how if he had a strainer it would be better and so on.

“Flirting with Tsukian women is…” Zoro trails off, his mouth pressed into a thin line.

“I’m not Tsukian, but my country is very close to Shimotsuki, we have the same language after all. Tsukian women can be flirted with but doing it wrong or insulting them is dangerous. It’s a lack of care and respect that needs retribution for.” Nami explains.

“Yeah, the more powerful the woman, the higher the stakes and the braver you have to be to try it. Bravery is attractive and so the more threatening a woman is and the more people fear her the more impressive it is for someone to try. I’ve not seen anyone try to flirt with Robin in years.” Zoro adds.

Sanji stares wide eyed at the happily oblivious Franky and Robin who is watching him with interest.

“Is… is Franky in danger here?” he asks in quiet horror. Robin always seems so sweet, he’s sure that she wouldn’t do him any harm. He remembers the way that Robin leant over Absalom, her hand on his shoulder and a sweet smile on her face, asking if there was any problem and if everyone was enjoying themselves, at the same as her other hand was sliding to the slit in her dress where a dagger lay hidden.

“No, he’ll be fine.” Zoro says with an unconcerned wave of his hand, like he can waft the silly notion away.

“Didn’t she stab that last guy though?” Nami frowns and idly eats another bite of her steak.

“Only a little. And it was in the knee, it barely counted.” Zoro says with a roll of his eyes. Sanji feels a little more anxious. Robin doesn’t look like she’s armed but then she hadn’t in her beautiful ballgown either. Zoro said not to ask if and where a Tsukian lady is keeping her weapons but for Franky’s sake he hopes that Robin is unarmed. Although considering the number of arms that Robin can have at any given time that’s not a great option either.

“She didn’t get a mark for it, so I suppose you’re right.” Nami nods.

“Because he wouldn’t take no for an answer when she told him that she wasn’t interested and then when she stabbed him he curled up and cried for his mother.” Zoro groans.

“Why did a guy like that think that he had a chance with Robin then?” Sanji asks with a frown.

“He-”

“Wait here!” Luffy yells excitedly, bounding over to the three of them and throwing Usopp at them. Sanji’s nakama lands against his chest and knocks the air out of him.

“Luffy!” Usopp yells, scrambling from Sanji’s lap as Sanji pushes himself up on his elbows. He stares as Luffy as the rubber man bounces off to Franky and Robin and moves to drag them over too. Robin stops him with a plethora of hands hoists luffy off of his feet for long enough for Robin to safely put her tea down and stand up. Robin walks over to the group sedately as Franky is dragged behind Luffy. The rest of their party by the fire are watching with vague curiosity. Sanji understands by now that you get a hardened skin to Luffy’s oddness pretty quickly. Luffy skids over to them on his knees, pulling a stumbling franky down with him. Robin sits down gracefully and smooths down her clothes. Luffy looks around at all of them with a smile on his face so wide that Sanji is sure that it’d hurt sooner or later.

“Be our nakama!” Luffy says excitedly, throwing his hands in the air. The captain looks at Franky, Usopp and Sanji in turn with a bright smile on his face.

“Luffy.” Nami groans, pressing her hand against her face. Usopp is quickly translating for Franky.

“Can he even do that? Is that for just him or all of them? Because you made it sound like it was all of them for all of us.” Franky asks with a confused frown.

“Are you asking for all four of us to be nakama with all three of them?” Zoro asks, gesturing lazily to both groups.

“Yes!” Luffy confirms, bouncing a little on his heels. He’s like an overexcited puppy.

“Can he do that?” Sanji asks Zoro in Baratian.

“Technically he can, but we all have to agree first. I’ve got no problem with it, Usopp’s a good friend and Franky and I get on well, even if I haven’t spent as much time with him as Usopp. If it doesn’t work out we can just go back to friends. It’s fine by me.” Zoro shrugs and then relays a shorter version of the message first.

“I concur.” Robin agrees, nodding at Usopp and Franky. Franky turns a fetching shade of red that looks completely stupid against his hair. That’s the problem with people like Zoro and Franky, they have problems with matching other colours. Not that either of those two considers things like complementary colour schemes, the barbarians.

“If it doesn’t work out we can just go back to being friends? I mean, I want it to work out but-” Franky cuts himself off and runs an uneasy hand through his hair.

“Yeah.” Usopp answers.

“Well then… super!” Franky declares with a double thumbs up and a wink.

“Okay, Robin and I have been through enough keeping these two in line.” Usopp says in Tsukian and laughs as he jerks his thumb at Zoro and Sanji.

“OI!” Zoro and Sanji protest in unison, much to the hilarity of everyone else there.

“Well, Luffy’s never been wrong when picking nakama, so I’ll trust his gut.” Nami nods.

“I guess when you kill a dragon with someone you know what you want to be with them huh?” Sanji grins at Luffy. The captain gives an enthusiastic whoop and leaps forward in a decent attempt to smother them all. Though Sanji feels the air being crushed out of his lungs a little he can’t say that he minds being crushed up against Zoro’s body all that much.

“This has been a really weird week.” Sanji comments after Luffy lets them go. He’s sprawled on the grass next to Zoro, staring up at the sky and listening to, well, to his nakama talking excitedly to each other.

“Yeah. We need to go though.” Zoro says reluctantly as he gets to his feet. Sanji grumbles and follows him.

“New nakama!” Luffy declares happily, flopping onto his back and grinning upside down at Ace who rolls his eyes at his brother but Sanji can spot the trace of affection on his face.

They start packing up the cooking equipment, putting away the jerky that Sanji made, folding up the tents as tightly as possible and packing them up. Sanji takes it upon himself to kick his male nakama into helping, a category that now includes Luffy.

Before too long they’re back on their horses and riding off towards Shimotsuki again. Sanji has no idea how far they’ve ridden but his lower back aches and he’s seriously considering if he can talk Zoro into giving him some kind of lower back massage tonight. Assuming that it doesn’t mean some bizarre cultural thing that means he wants Zoro to kill a goat for him or some shit like that.

Sanji isn’t sure if it’s the heat from Seafoam or if the day is just a little sunnier but he thinks that it’s getting warmer. He supposes that they’re going further south. He doesn’t actually know where they are.

“Nami, can you tell me where we are?” he asks curiously, urging Seafoam closer to the navigator who is now his nakama.

“We’re in Lvneel right now.” Nami answers helpfully.

“How long did it take you to get to Baratie? I know that you arrived two weeks earlier than expected, but did you leave early too? The journey is supposed to take a month.” Sanji asks curiously.

“That’s how long I had to spend getting to your dumb ass!” Zoro calls back from the front. Sanji regrets not having anything on hand to throw at him.

“It took us two weeks, though in fairness the horses were all packed and we were on our way the very moment that the King told us we could leave.” Nami answers, thoroughly ignoring Zoro.

“We ran to the horses!” Luffy chips in from further down their line of horses, apparently he had been listening too. It makes sense, conversation between their group is relatively sedate and peppered with stretches of silence. After days and days riding it’s easy to run out of simple conversation starters.

“How did you make it that quickly?” Sanji asks Nami in awe.

“I told you, we ran!” Luffy laughs uproariously at his own joke with Ace joining in. Sanji rolls his eyes, morons.

“Just clever navigation.” Nami answers with a light shrug.

Zoro pulls on the reigns of his horse to show him down a little and he drops back so that he’s level with Nami and Sanji, rather than at the front with Kaku and Johnny.

“Okay, my understanding of geography isn’t great but-” Zoro starts but doesn’t get any further into his sentence before everyone in earshot bursts out into sidesplitting laughter. Kaku is slumped forward in his saddle and shaking with the effort of suppressing his laughter, Johnny is howling with laughter in tune with Yosaku which provides Sanji a surround effect with one behind him and one in front, even Nami and Robin are laughing daintily behind their hands. Zoro’s face is like a thundercloud and Sanji’s face hurts from grinning so broadly.

“I hate all of you.” Zoro asserts darkly and Sanji only grins harder.

“AS I WAS SAYING,” Zoro says loudly and some of the laughter quietens down, though not from Luffy’s direction.

“If we’re in Lvneel we need to keep going… left-”

“West, Zoro, West.” Nami sighs in a long suffering manner that makes Sanji wonder just how bad Zoro’s navigation is on a large scale. Sure he’s seen Zoro get lost in the palace over and over, but it can be quite winding with the architecture fitting to the trees that make up most of the palace. Plus, he was new there. But not even knowing what North, South, East and West are is baffling. Sanji only started learning Tsukian a little over five months ago and even he knows those words.

“Fine. If we keep going West then we hit Karakuri, then down to go past Ohara and back home, right?” Zoro asks with a frown of such concentration that Sanji passes through the phase of mocking amusement to finding it endearing.

“South, not down.” Nami answers.

Zoro pauses for a few moments and then his eyes start to narrow as he looks at Nami.

“That is the way that we’re going, right? That is the way that you went, isn’t it? Because even I know that the only other Kingdom around here is Shells and you wouldn’t have cut through there, would you?” Zoro says slowly, his voice very much suggesting that there is a right answer to that question. Suddenly all of Zoro’s knights except Robin seem to find other things to look at. Kaku becomes very fascinated with a cloud, Johnny and Yosaku decide to stare at the treeline and both Nami and Luffy stare intently down at their saddles.

“Why would going through Shells be a bad thing?” Sanji frowns. He’s heard of Shells vaguely, but he doesn’t honestly know a thing about the place.

“You really don’t know?” Zoro frowns, taking his attention off of Nami to look up at him. Sanji starts getting the creeping feeling that he’s just asked something very stupid.

“What? I live behind a giant mountain range, we don’t deal with other countries a whole lot. We don’t fight with people or trade all that much. The only country we have a lot to do with is Alabasta. Well, and Shimotsuki now, obviously.” Sanji answers defensively. Zoro closes his eyes and sighs.

“I suppose that’s fair. Dumb, but fair.” He concedes.

“You flatter me.” Sanji answers flatly in Baratian.

“That was sarcasm wasn’t it?” Zoro responds.

“You’re so smart!” Sanji answers brightly with equally fake enthusiasm.

“I’m going to knock you off your horse in a minute.” Zoro growls at him and Sanji laughs.

“Anyway,” Zoro says, switching back to Tsukian, “up until when I was fifteen we were at war with Shells. Usually a pathetic country like that wouldn’t have been able to stand up against us, but the food problem was getting worse and worse. When lots of our people started starving we couldn’t do that to them any more and we struck a peace treaty. One that said very specifically that we wouldn’t go into their country. No Tsukians at all, much less a group of Royal Knights because that would be a declaration of war and you wouldn’t do something like that would you Nami?” Zoro says, his voice becoming more and more pointed.

“We were worried about you!” Nami argues, though she does seem embarrassed about being called out on it.

“You let her do this?!” Zoro snarls, turning in his saddle to glare at Luffy.

“It’s only an act of war if you get caught!” Luffy says brightly and Ace laughs and is entirely unperturbed by Zoro’s scowl that would suggest to a sensible man to stay out of the argument and not to encourage Luffy. Sanji is a sensible man and he’s not getting caught up in this either.

“Don’t get angry Zoro, we were all- look, we didn’t know what he was doing to you, what kind of things he was forcing you into or how badly he was treating you!” Kaku says with a wave in Sanji’s direction that the blond absolutely doesn’t appreciate. He can see Kaku’s point though, if he had been the one to go to Shimotsuki first he knows that his and Zeff’s knights would all have been worried for him, especially as the Tsukians had a barbaric reputation.

“And we didn’t know Sanji was a good person.” Nami says with a pout on her mouth that does absolutely nothing to dilute Zoro’s evident irritation.

“That doesn’t mean that you can just march right through Shells, what if you’d been caught and started a war?” Zoro says exasperatedly.

“We didn’t. Don’t worry about it.” Luffy says with a laugh and Sanji watches with interest as Zoro makes an irritated and exasperated sound in his mouth and then drops the subject entirely. Zoro just backed down from an argument, or at least was persuaded to give it up. He’s not sure he’s really seen that before. Maybe he has with Robin and Zoro but Sanji had figured that it was maybe manners, though that is likely optimistic thinking, and failing it being manners then it was surely common sense. Perhaps he has that all wrong though, perhaps this is an example of nakama keeping each other balanced when it’s needed. That argument with Nami was unlikely to go anywhere and could perhaps have even turned nasty, but Luffy just dismissed the whole thing with a lighthearted statement. Interesting.

Their group passes through woodland and heaths in a way that showcases the attractive nature of Lvneel. It’s different to Baratie, enough to be noticeable but not enough to be interesting for more than a few scattered minutes throughout the day. Certainly not enough to entertain Sanji through a whole day of riding.

Robin gives him and Zoro language lessons with Franky listening in and Usopp doing his best to catch Franky up, though the poor guy is really being dropped in the ocean out of his depth here. Robin is schooling the pair of them on subordinate clauses, future tense in first, second and third person and the whole thing is starting to make Sanji’s head spin. In all honesty he’s started to get a grip on Tsukian grammar, though he frequently can’t explain the rules his guesses seem to be right more often than not now. His vocabulary isn’t really good enough though, not by his standards. He probably knows several thousand words and in day to day conversation he’s more or less okay, a lot better than what he had feared he would be like, but often when he hears the Tsukians talking amongst themselves about things he’s not always able to pick it up, or not enough to understand all of it. It makes him feel stupid and he hates that. He’s determined to learn more though, to get better. This is going to be the rest of his life and like hell is he going to not be able to talk to Zoro about anything that he wants.

Although they still owe each other that vocabulary lesson from the day before, their first time will be really awkward if they can’t talk about what they want. He is still determined not to ask anyone but Zoro for help on that one, it’s far too private. Also it would be mortifying.

Needless to say that Sanji is dying for a change of pace by the time they stop and he relishes the chance to stop and cook. Unpacking and setting up for dinner is a rather sedate affair and for some reason Ace keeps staring at him with this scowl on his face and Sanji starts to wonder what it is that he’s done to possibly offend the man. He doesn’t think that he’s made any terrible social faux pas but then again he wouldn’t be would he?

Sanji is just unpacking his knives and equipment when Kaku appears at his side and starts to help, taking up the pots and pans and saving Sanji the trip.

“You know, before you came along I used to do all of the cooking when we were out of Shimotsuki.” Kaku remarks.

“No shit? Why didn’t you say anything before? I’ve been itching to learn Tsukian cuisine!” Sanji beams excitedly. Kaku narrows his eyes at him and looks irritated and confused.

“Our food makes you itch?” He asks.

“Oh, no. Shit, I need to stop directly translating Baratian phrases. I meant, I’ve been really excited and hoping to learn Tsukian cuisine.” He amends awkwardly. He really needs to get Robin to sit him down and give him a list of Tsukian idioms and phrases because he keeps fucking up like this.

“Follow me then.” Kaku smiles and jerks his head to the fire.

Kaku walks him through the process of cooking Tsukian food and Sanji steps back and lets Kaku lead. He’s not had to do that in years, he knows most of Zeff’s tricks by now and had moved them into his own. Though he doesn’t know everything. Zeff always told him to never teach a man everything that you know.

It seems that the Tsukian way of cooking involves less filleting and herb rubs than Baratian food.

“You’re cutting the meat really thickly.” Sanji notes with interest as he peels the last of the potatoes that they found the day before.

“That’s how it’s done.” Kaku answers as he continues cutting the rabbit meat. Usopp shot it earlier as they were riding along on their horses, he nailed it dead in the eye too so they haven’t had to pick shot out of the meat at all. There’s nothing worse than remains of slingshotted metal or flaked off arrow metal in meat that’s discovered too late. Sanji has always been good at spotting it but some chefs aren’t so good. No one appreciates eating and then suddenly biting into a lead ball.

“That’s really interesting. How do you season it?” Sanji asks curiously, shuffling a little closer to Kaku to see.

“It’s in the sauce.” The long nosed man explains lightly.

Sanji gets back to work with chopping his vegetables and being the support cook for a change. He feels the heat on him again, and not from the fire.

“What are you staring at?” Kaku asks him flatly as he stirs the broth as Sanji looks up at Ace from chopping vegetables for at least the tenth time.

“Ace keeps staring at me.” Sanji answers quietly. Kaku looks over and of course when he does Ace isn’t looking at him, because that’s perfect and makes him look really paranoid.

“Well he was.” Sanji sighs in irritation and chops a little faster. Kaku frowns deeply but says nothing.

Sanji wonders if he’s being paranoid, but he’s not gonna ask Kaku what he thinks that he’s done wrong. Kaku and Ace probably don’t know each other well enough for that. Maybe he’ll ask Luffy later, Ace is his brother and they’re nakama now, so that ought to be okay, right?

Throughout the rest of the cooking Sanji sees Ace watching him with narrowed eyes and not the kind of narrow precision focus of ‘I need food’ that Luffy has on his face.

When the food is finished and Sanji heads over to sit with Franky he stops being under Ace’s scrutiny and instead Kaku is the one getting stared at. Guilt pools into his stomach when Ace taps Zoro on the shoulder and pulls him far away from the group to talk.

“I think I did something wrong.” Sanji murmurs quietly.

“What? Why’d you say that?” Franky asks, slurping the last chunk of meat into his mouth with a hefty amount of sauce that was very nice indeed. Sanji wants to really study Tsukian food more now, he needs to get Kaku to show him more on the road. Maybe tomorrow he can ride with him and they can talk about it.

“Ace keeps staring at me and he looks pissed. Then it was Kaku. Maybe I did something I shouldn’t have and got us both into trouble. He’s gone off with Zoro now too.” Sanji confesses. Franky looks at him with concern and flashes him a reassuring smile.

“It’ll be okay, it’s probably nothing and even if it is something they all know that this is new to you. It’ll be cool.” Franky says wisely and Sanji nods, the weight on his shoulders easing a little.

He glances over at Ace and Zoro again, they’ve just now stopped and are starting to talk.

“I… still don’t wanna be around for that.” He mutters.

“I think it’s my turn to wash up the cooking equipment.” He declares loudly as he stands up. That way no one can accuse him of running away from his problems, he has a legitimate excuse, no matter what Franky’s face says.

Sanji collects the pots and pans, now thankfully cooler due to the time. They’re also empty, thanks to Luffy.

“I’ll help.” Kaku volunteers, standing up and gathering crockery and cutlery from their group.

“Thanks!” Sanji beams. It’s nice that Kaku is offering to help him clean up after they cooked together.

Laden down with pots, pans, knives, spatulas and spoons, along with the plates and cutlery the two of them make their way carefully over to the river. It’s only a few minutes walk away, Nami has been keen to keep them close to water. It’s no fun having to ration fresh water to drink.

“Here you go. No backing out of helping now!” Sanji says with a grin, tossing a scrubbing sponge to Kaku who deftly catches it out of the air.

Sanji crouches down and scrubs off three plates before his back starts to twinge. He sets them down on the small towel that he had tucked in his back pocket, the edge of it smeared a little with sauce and where him and Kaku had cleaned their fingers off after washing them as they cooked.

He stands up and stretches, his back cracking vertebrae by vertebrae as he does it.

“I’m really looking forward to getting a proper kitchen where I can stand and cook and not get a…” Sanji opens his eyes and frowns, pausing with his hands stupidly still above his head. Crap, what’s the word for getting a crick in your back?

“And not getting a stiff back.” He says instead.

He looks over at Kaku who had been oddly silent, not pitching in to try to guess what Sanji was getting at. Kaku isn’t looking at him though, or not in the eyes at least. His eyes are lower. Low enough to make Sanji glance down and see that where his pale blue shirt is riding up as he stretches it’s also showing off Zoro sized thumbprint bruises that he hadn’t realised were there. He’d bet money that he’s got eight fingertip ones on the back of his hips too.

“Oops. Sorry!” Sanji laughs, his face flushing red with embarrassment.

“I didn’t know they had bruised.” Sanji adds awkwardly, feeling the back of his neck and his ears burn in what is probably a really attractive shade of red. Sanji crouches back down and busies himself with scrubbing and hoping that they’ll just neatly pretend like that didn’t just happen.

He’s gonna kick Zoro’s ass for not telling him that he was bruised, he must have seen at some point, surely. Regardless, he can still kick Zoro’s ass, he put them there in the first place. Although if Zoro wants to make that up to him Sanji is pretty sure that he can think of a good way that Zoro can get into his good books again. Damn, now his face is red for another reason entirely.

“You don’t get a lot of this, do you?” Kaku says after Sanji has cleaned a few more plates.

“Honestly?” Sanji says glancing over at Kaku, “I’m a little-”

Sanji pauses, ‘out of my depth’ and ‘lost at sea’ are probably not phrases that he can translate. He really does need to get Robin and Usopp to help him out there.

“It’s all really different. I’m sure there’s stuff I’m getting really wrong.” He finishes a little un-eloquently.

He looks over to Kaku to see him picking up Sanji’s largest knife.

“Oh, be careful with that. It’s delicate.” Sanji says a little anxiously. One of the greatest tools a Chef can have is their knives and he really doesn’t want them damaged.

“I know how to handle a blade.” Kaku says flatly and Sanji immediately remembers that the man’s a swordsman, just the same as Zoro is.

“Oh, shit. Of course you do, I forgot about your swords. I didn’t mean any offence.” Sanji apologises quickly.

Sanji goes back to washing and figures that if he just keeps to himself then maybe he can get through this without fucking up again. Then maybe he can go apologise to Ace for whatever it is that he did wrong there. This is going to be a long evening of saying sorry by the looks of things.

“Before I met you I said that I couldn’t do this. That I wouldn’t. Zoro’s my prince and that kind of act is completely wrong.” Kaku is talking quickly and Sanji frowns at the plate that he’s washing. He must be mistranslating that. Kaku must mean that he didn’t think that Zoro could do this. Presumably be means their marriage.

“But the more I talk to you, the more that changes.” Kaku remarks, getting up.

“They had better come through with their promise after you’re done.” Kaku says.

Sanji frowns. That makes no sense at all.

He’s just turning his head to look at Kaku, his mouth opening to ask Kaku to repeat that or to explain because he really doesn’t get what he’s saying. As he turns his head Kaku’s grabs a painful fistful of Sanji’s hair and it’s only because of him still turning his head to look at Kaku that the blade bites into the side of his throat instead. Sanji jerks as his own cooking knife slices through his neck, it’s too late to stop the metal sinking in or the too fast gush of blood that sprays over the plates as Sanji falls onto his knees beside them.

Sanji chokes in a breath, his hand pressed to the side of his throat. He jerks out of Kaku’s grip and stumbles to his feet, whirling around to look at the considerably startled man. The whole of Kaku’s sleeve is drenched in what Sanji realises is his blood.

“They promised him to me!” Kaku snarls and leaps for Sanji.

Sanji grounds his foot and swings for the knife in Kaku’s hand, he beat this motherfucker when he had swords, he’s not going to lose to this. The knife pings across and Sanji lands on his left foot and feels flames lick up the other one and keeps his momentum going to deliver a full kick right into Kaku’s chest. The treacherous swordsman flies back, through several trees and lands well out of Sanji’s sight.

Sanji’s hand is clasped to his neck and he can feel thick hot blood seeping out from between his fingers. That’s a nasty cut alright. His shirt’s completely fucking ruined too. He swallows thickly and feels a bigger sluice of blood against his skin.

The world starts to spin to an uncomfortable degree and he topples down to his knees. This is… not good.

 

* * *

The awesome art for this chapter down below was done by the hella amazing [genderfluidsanji](http://genderfluidsanji.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


	20. Chapter 20

"The dragon definitely counts, it doesn't matter if you couldn't challenge it to a duel." Zoro frowns as he talks to Luffy.

 

"I know that." Luffy says rolling his eyes and settling his hat a little better as a gust of wind pulls at it ever so slightly.

 

"I'm saying, how awesome would it be to challenge a dragon to a duel?" Luffy grins excitedly. Zoro blinks and tries to imagine Luffy throwing himself in front of a dragon and yelling a challenge out at it. That's not a particularly hard mental image to conjure up, which probably says more about Luffy than it does about him.

 

"Even so-" Zoro starts again, but his dragon based debate is cut short when Ace walks over and taps him on the shoulder.

 

"I need to talk to you." Ace says in a low and quiet voice.

 

"Okay, so talk. It's not like Luffy was going on about anything important." Zoro grins and Luffy's mouth pulls down into a sad puppy pout.

 

"No, alone." Ace says firmly.

 

Zoro looks down at his nearly empty bowl and at Luffy's suddenly very interested eyes. He makes eye contact with Luffy and shovels the rest of his food into his mouth in one bite, even if that bite makes his cheeks bulge. Luffy looks like a kicked puppy and the only reason that Zoro doesn't laugh is because it would end up with him spraying his food across the ground. He stands up and walks around the upturned log that he had been sitting on with Luffy and walks a little way away from the camp. Ace keeps walking though until they're a fair distance, easily away from earshot of anyone sitting down at the fire.

 

"What did you want to talk about?" Zoro asks curiously, his hand idly resting on his sword hilts and running his thumb absently at the fabric on the hilt of one. Out of habit he glances across the open moorland to the left of them. They can see for miles but you can never be too careful.

 

"I need to talk to you about Kaku." Ace says seriously.

 

"Hm? What about him?" Zoro asks in surprise, looking at Ace. He hadn't expected that.

 

"I don't trust him." Ace says flatly.

 

"Well, that's your problem." Zoro shrugs. Ace and Kaku aren't even friends, they're not under any obligation to trust each other. Their only connection to each other is that Kaku is friends with Luffy and Luffy is Ace's brother. That's not even a strong enough link to be considered a corner with anyone. They're just men who have people in common.

 

"No, I think that it's yours. You shouldn't trust him either." Ace corrects himself.

 

"Kaku is one of my knights and a friend too." Zoro asserts tersely.

 

"I know that, that's why I've been waiting until I was sure." Ace says with a sigh, he reaches up and presses his hat a little tighter onto the top of his head and tilts it down over his eyes a little. That's a gesture that Zoro has seen a hundred times on Luffy. When Luffy does it he tends to be uncomfortable but serious. Something is really bothering Luffy if he does that. Is Ace the same?

 

"Why do you think that there is something untrustworthy about a man that I've known for years?" Zoro asks unhappily. Zoro likes to consider himself a good judge of character, he's known Kaku for a very long time and the cheerful man was always an asset to his knights, as well as a skilled fighter he was always someone who wasn't afraid to go after what he wanted with dogged determination. When they had been against high odds Kaku was determined to beat them and nothing would dissuade him at all. Once Kaku had made a decision to do something there was very little that anyone could do to talk him out of it.

 

"He was serious and withdrawn the whole way to Baratie, I figured that was maybe just who he was but everyone else said otherwise." Ace begins to explain.

 

"He was worried about me, we all talked about that, remember?" Zoro reasons.

 

"I know that, but don't you think that he was acting odd at Baratie? You said yourself that him challenging Sanji to a duel was very unusual for him? He's been really..." Ace struggles for the word.

 

"He's a little different, but it's a big change. I didn't exactly take to Sanji all that well either for a while. He's an annoying bastard, no matter what I feel for him. It's not like he's going to get on with everyone." Zoro admits. His husband can be abrasive and he doesn't tend to mince his words much either, the only exception to that was in Baratie when he had been forced to lie for the sake of politeness or manners. It clearly didn't sit well with who Sanji was. He'll do much better in Shimotsuki for sure.

 

"Fine, but Sanji doesn't seem to have a problem with him at all. Not unless he's told you anything different." the dark haired man argues back.

 

Zoro opens his mouth to disagree but actually Ace has a point. Sanji hasn't had any ill will to Kaku at all, on the contrary he's pretty sure that the prince has been trying to build bridges with the other man. Even this evening they were cooking together and Zoro wouldn't be surprised at all if it had been Sanji who had suggested it.

 

"So Kaku doesn't like him, that doesn't mean that I can't trust him." Zoro concedes.

 

"Look, you like the man, he's your friend. But he's not mine, I can see things that you can't because I've got no reason to lie to myself about what I see. You're trying to see the best in a friend, but all I can see a guy who's been glaring daggers at Sanji the whole time they've been together. The only time that he perked up at all was when you told the two of us that the pair of you haven't fucked or anything." Ace reasons.

 

Zoro frowns and thinks. Maybe Ace was right and his knight really did dislike his husband. That's unfortunate as they're going to be seeing each other a lot in the future. Zoro doesn't go on any interesting expeditions or adventures without his knights, though sometimes he leaves some of them doing something else. Even if they miss a few trips together they're not going to avoid each other for long.

 

"Okay, so they don't like each other. You dragged me all of the way out here for that?" Zoro asks with a reluctant sigh. As interesting and slightly distressing as this new development is it hardly warranted this kind of intervention from someone who isn't nakama to either of them.

 

"No." Ace says with a shake of his head.

 

Ace folds his arms and seems reluctant to say what he does next.

 

"I wasn't told why Whitebeard wanted me out here. Maybe it would make sense for one of his sons to be out here, just to have more people on the trip, as goodwill to Mihawk or something." Ace shrugs.

 

"It's not like our fathers dislike each other though. And Whitebeard doesn't pander for favour to my father, that's part of the reason he likes Whitebeard." Zoro says, feeling confused.

 

"I know, that's why I was puzzled too." Ace nods, "But Whitebeard asked me to come specifically and I think I know why now. I think he's suspecting Kaku of betraying you, of hurting or killing Sanji, anything to disrupt our alliance with Baratie."

 

Zoro's jaw drops.

 

"You're accusing one of my knights of TREASON?" Zoro say in utter disbelief.

 

"He's not done anything yet, so no. I'm just warning you about it. That's why I think I'm here." the other man says, holding his hands up before him in a gesture of peace, but it does little to make Zoro less angry.

 

"How dare you? I know that Whitebeard is twitchy after Blackbeard. And I know that he was your nakama and I can't imagine how much that must have hurt." Zoro says furiously. Even within his anger he feels a sting of sympathy for Ace. Whenever he hears about what Blackbeard did he feels it. Blackbeard and Ace were nakama and brothers too, all of Whitebeard's group of misfits were his sons as far as he was concerned. Whitebeard collected fiercely loyal people in need of a father figure and leadership. Blackbeard had killed one of his own, killed one of his nakama. Zoro can't imagine how that betrayal must feel, the idea of one of his nakama doing the same isn't even something that he can imagine. He genuinely can't wrap his mind around it.

 

"That doesn't mean that one of my friends, one of my knights, is going to try to do anything to Sanji." Zoro finishes. He sympathises with Ace, he does, but this kind of accusation can't be allowed to stand.

 

"I get that, and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just bitter or paranoid, but it explains why Whitebeard sent me. So ignore me if you want, but it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on the two of them and keep them... apart..." Ace trails off and Zoro watches as his eyes go wide. Zoro turns around in alarm to look at their camp. Everything is fine though, everyone is still sitting around eating and talking.

 

Except Sanji and Kaku.

 

"Oh no." Ace breathes and sprints back to the camp with Zoro hot on his heels.

 

"Luffy!" Ace yells as he runs and Luffy jerks into alertness, looking around at his brother.

 

"Where are Sanji and Kaku?" He shouts and skids to a halt before Luffy.

 

"Uh." Luffy says in confusion.

 

"I think they went to clean or something? They took all of the plates. What's wrong?" Luffy asks, he looks serious and entirely alert.

 

"He-" Zoro starts to say but he's cut off by a scream in the distance.

 

Everyone at the fireside leaps to their feet, hands being drawn to weapons and everyone looking around.

 

"You two, stay here. Nami, Robin come on." Luffy says, snapping into his role as captain and gesturing to Johnny and Yosaku. Luffy doesn't do this an awful lot but when a situation is this serious he can go from happy go lucky fool to sharp and deadly in less than a second.

 

Zoro follows Luffy at a run, they're heading in the direction of the scream, but he's not entirely sure that they're going the right way. Zoro's heart is hammering so loud that he's sure everyone else must be able to hear it too. All he can think about is Sanji and how he's not sure he can forgive himself if Sanji is hurt. But with Ace's words so recently in his ear he's not quite able to shake off the idea that maybe Kaku is involved, even though that can't be possible. It can't. It can't.

 

A loud crashing and a bang rings out nearby and the group of them burst through the trees into the clearing.

 

Zoro's heart almost stops when he sees Sanji on his knees in the dirt but he's sure that it freezes entirely when he sees the blood sprayed on the rocks around him. Kaku is nowhere to be seen.

 

"SANJI!" He screams out and sprints to Sanji's side.

 

"Ugh." Sanji grunts and stumbles to his feet, one hand grabbing Zoro's armor for stability.

 

Sanji's visible eye is shut, screwed tight in pain and one hand is clutched to the side of his throat and it's completely covered in blood. His whole throat is red, his shirt is soaked all down his left side, running up his sleeve where he's pressing on whatever wound it is that he has under there.

 

"Sanji, talk to me, what happened? How badly are you hurt?" Zoro asks in breathless panic.

 

"Sanji, no." Usopp  breathes in utter horror, reaching out and touching Sanji's blood soaked shoulder.

 

"I'm fine." Sanji sighs. Zoro is skeptical, Sanji does not look fine at all, but he's standing up on his own and he seems coherent so maybe he is.

 

"Go get Kaku, he tried to cut my throat." Sanji says, gesturing behind Zoro.

 

"You mean through that path of smashed and slightly burning trees?" Franky says with wide eyes and Zoro looks over his shoulder to see just that. He has no idea how there is fire there but he doesn't care.

 

"I'll get him." Luffy growls, clenching his fists.

 

"Right behind you." Nami agrees, her staff whirling around in her hand.

 

"Sanji, let me see." Zoro says, reaching for Sanji's hand.

 

"It looks worse than it is." Sanji mutters, slipping back into Baratian and leaning out of Zoro's reach.

 

"This is more important. Kaku said something." Sanji insists, flicking back to Tsukian. Zoro watches as the blood stain down Sanji's shirt continues to slowly spread.

 

"He said that you were promised to him, that someone was going to come through on a promise after this. I guess he meant killing me." Sanji says looking at Zoro. That sentence doesn't make sense. How could he be promised to Kaku? What?

 

"You mean Zoro should have married him?" Ace says with a frown and a suspicious look at Zoro.

 

"No, that was... that was never the plan. I don't even- Kaku's just a friend. Was a friend. He..." Zoro says in shock.

 

He looks down at his hands. Sanji's blood is on his fingers. Kaku tried to kill Sanji, if Sanji hadn't fought him off then he would be dead. Kaku tried to kill Sanji.

 

He is dead.

 

"Stay here. Robin, Usopp, look after him. Stop that bleeding." Zoro says and he doesn't even need to because Usopp was already pawing through his bag before Zoro even said anything. Usopp has so much stuff in that bag that he has on him at all times that he must have a bandage of some kind.

 

He turns on his heel and stalks through the broken trees, he draws his swords. Kaku is going to die, imminently and painfully.

 

He comes to a tree that's cracked and broken but not smashed in two like the rest of them. Kaku isn't there and from the shouting Zoro can pinpoint just where he’s escaped off to. It doesn't even take Zoro ten seconds to weave through the trees to find Nami, Luffy and Kaku. Luffy has him pinned to the ground, his arms wrapped around him and Kaku hisses, swears and shouts every time that Luffy moves or tightens his arms. Nami is standing there pointing her staff at him, lighting is crackling at the end of it and the air has that same static and grease feel that it gets whenever Nami is getting ready to fry something alive. She's got a scuff on her face and a red mark that is probably going to turn into a decent black eye. Kaku did that to her, another thing on his list of sins, but right now it's at the bottom.

 

Luffy hauls Kaku up onto his feet and when Kaku sees him he stops struggling.

 

"Zoro..." Kaku says, his voice just above a whisper. His eyes are wide, Zoro isn't reading fear in them though, just surprise.

 

"Why? Why did you do this? WHY?!" Zoro shouts at him, his grip on the two swords in his hands going tight. He is going to kill Kaku for this, there is no question about that, but he needs to understand why. He needs to understand why one of his friends, why one of his knights would do this to him. He needs to know what Sanji nearly died for.

 

"He... he doesn't deserve you! So Shimotsuki has some problems, you shouldn't be sold off to some fucking Baratian scum just for that. You're so much better. He doesn't deserve you!" Kaku says loudly and desperately.

 

"But you think that you do." Nami says darkly and the idea clicks into Zoro's mind with a sick and disgusting feeling.

 

"You did this for jealousy?" He says, feeling a sickness welling up inside of him at the very thought.

 

"It's not jealousy! I- I love you Zoro! I always have! You just needed time to see it, but then you got married to HIM and... and I... he doesn't deserve you!" Kaku shouts, his eyes filling with tears.

 

"I love you." He reiterates, looking up at Zoro pleadingly.

 

Zoro stands there with a numbness creeping over his whole being. He never even knew that Kaku was interested in him like that.

 

"Luffy, let him go." Zoro orders.

 

Luffy gives him a curious look but does as he's told, unwrapping his arms from Kaku and stepping back. His eyes are still sharp and Zoro doubts that Kaku could get no more than ten feet before Luffy dragged him back kicking and screaming, no matter how well he can jump. Kaku's eyes are filled with hope and gratitude. Kaku is clutching onto his right side and his shirt is burnt through there and the skin is rapidly going a blue black colour, the bones there are broken at the very least if not shattered. That's Sanji's work alright. Kaku wheezes a little and coughs at the release of pressure, Zoro notices that he’s bleeding from his mouth slightly as he does it. Good.

 

"You love me?" Zoro asks slowly, his voice low.

 

"I do, I always-" Kaku starts to talk but Zoro doesn't let him finish.

 

Zoro kicks Kaku in the chest himself, his foot landing just where Sanji's had and knocking the other man to the floor. No, not a man, Kaku isn't a man, he's scum. He presses his foot on the ribs that absolutely feel shattered.

 

"You LOVE me?!" Zoro snarls at him.

 

"Zoro, Zoro please!” Kaku begs and coughs, blood running from the corner of his mouth. Zoro grinds his heel in a little harder.

 

“I've known for a long time and I know this isn't how you wanted to find out, but it's more than that. I know that if you just gave this a chance that we could know each other, I can feel it.” Kaku insists, his hands wrapping around Zoro’s leg.

 

Zoro remembers Sanji, remembers painting the blond’s skin, he remembers running his fingers through Sanji’s wet hair, he remembers Sanji opening up to him with his weaknesses. He sees Sanji letting Zoro see him when he was full of panic and fear in the night and he sees red at Kaku daring to use that word. He doesn’t know Sanji yet, not for sure, their behaviour is treading into that territory but it never feels wrong.

 

Kaku thinks that he has that with him? That they could ever have that?!

 

“Know you? I would never know someone like you.” He hisses furiously.

 

“You’re no friend of mine, you’re no knight, you are NOBODY to me. You aren’t now and you never will be! All you are is a lowly, oath breaking, cowardly, TRAITOR!” He roars at him, digging his foot into Kaku’s chest hard enough to make him yell out in pain.

 

“Zoro! Please, you don’t-” Kaku gasps.

 

“Don’t even speak to me! You don’t have the right! You are nothing, you’re not even human to me. You tried to kill Sanji, you tried to kill the man that I love and I am going to kill you for that." He hisses at Kaku.

 

“Zoro, don’t.” Nami says quickly, her staff catching Zoro in the arms before he can raise his swords to end Kaku. She’s dispelled her lightning so when he twitches it’s with barely suppressed rage instead of her magic misfiring. He looks at her tensely for getting in his way, this had better be good.

 

“One of our men tried to kill the Prince of Baratie, we’ll be lucky if the King doesn’t think that this is a plot and declares war. About the only chance that you’ve got to save this is Sanji’s word and this scumbag.” She says darkly, looking down at Kaku.

 

“You won’t get his word. He’s not going to live, he can’t have you.” Kaku growls, looking up at them.

 

“He kicked your ass over here didn’t he? He’s doing better than you are, now SHUT UP!” Luffy shouts and punches Kaku hard in the face, his rubber fist snapping back afterwards with the force of it.

 

“Giving him to the King of Baratie and letting him deal with this and showing him how horrified we are at what Kaku has done…” Nami reasons, letting Zoro get to his conclusions his own way.

 

Zoro grinds his teeth together. He is beyond furious, he wants nothing more than to rend Kaku into a fine pulp, to cut him and cut him and cut him until he’s nothing. He wants to do that because of how he dared to hurt Sanji, to betray Sanji’s trust as well as Zoro’s own. But Nami is right, Sanji is more than just Sanji. He knows damn well that his own father wouldn’t buy that an assassination attempt on him, was just one man if it had happened to him in the company of Sanji’s knights. He can hardly expect Zeff to give them such a charitable benefit of the doubt. Shit, this could easily start a war.

 

Zoro doesn’t want to care about anything but Sanji right now, he hadn’t until Nami brought it up, but he’s a prince too. He cares about his people and so many other people will die if Baratie and Shimotsuki go to war. Other people’s husbands will die, their wives, their children, their friends and nakama. His people and Sanji’s will suffer just like Zoro’s suffering if this turns to war.

 

He has to put them above himself, no matter what his rage and desire for vengeance says.

 

He sheathes his swords.

 

“He’ll die, I promise you. And it’ll certainly be a lot more slow and painful than it will be at your swords Zoro.” Nami says softly, letting go of her staff with one hand to touch his face, her thumb running over his cheekbone and the mark that Sanji gave him just under it.

 

“Don’t kill him. Tie him up. I don’t care what else you do to him, just… I don’t want to look at him.” Zoro says tightly. Nami lets go of him and she and Luffy nod, back to being deadly serious again.

 

Zoro turns and walks back to the clearing, he knows that he’s doing the right thing but that doesn’t mean that he likes it at all.

 

No sooner has Zoro got back into the clearing than Ace runs up to him and reaches for him. Zoro is far too twitchy though and his sword is halfway out of its sheath before he registers the panic on Ace's face and the way the other man screeches to a halt on the dirt.

 

"Zoro, listen to me. Come here." Ace says, his voice quick and quiet. He reaches out for Zoro and touches his shoulders. When he's sure that Zoro isn't going to stab him he turns them around so that Zoro's back is to the group and he's just looking at Ace and the forest behind him. Or rather he's looking at the smashed up trees and the softly spreading fire. How did Sanji do that? If his husband turns out to be a fire witch he'll be very surprised.

 

"Apparently when Sanji says 'I'm fine' what he means is, I'm going to die." Ace says quickly.

 

Die?

 

"WHAT?" Zoro demands, he tries to look around but Ace grabs his face.

 

"Stop that! Kaku severed an artery when he cut Sanji's throat. He didn't get his jugular vein, I don't know how, but with a cut artery-" Ace says low and fast.

 

"He'll bleed to death." Zoro answers for him.

 

Numbness creeps though Zoro's body and soul. He's seen men bleed out from throat injuries in seconds. But that can't be right, Sanji's still standing. He was fine enough to kick Kaku through several trees and burn right through his armour. Sanji was talking, he was coherent. Ace has to be wrong, he has to be.

 

"I'm going to try to cauterise the wound. But you need to keep him still and calm. This might not even work but he'll die for sure if he's just left like that." Ace says sensibly. Zoro nods disjointedly, if Sanji knows that he might die then his heart will go like mad. His heart isn't smart enough to know that racing like that will just get all of the blood out of Sanji's body quicker. Sanji's strict belief that everything is fine and it's just a cut that's bleeding a lot but isn't serious may well be the reason that he's still standing.

 

He and Ace return to Sanji quickly. The closer that Zoro gets to Sanji the more he realises that Ace is right. Sanji isn't standing up entirely on his own power any more, he's leaning against Franky's broad chest. Usopp's hands are on Sanji's chest and arms but Zoro can't see if the other man is holding him up or just trying to grip him tight enough to keep him in this world instead of whatever comes after.

 

"Hey." Zoro says with a calmness that he doesn't feel.

 

"Did you find him?" Sanji asks, looking up at him.

 

"Yeah, Nami and Luffy have him." he answers and stops just before Sanji. His husband has always been pale but now he's almost white. He's splattered with his own blood and his previously pale shirt is drenched in blood.

 

"Alright." Ace mutters in Tsukian and pulls his knife out of the holder in his belt. Sanji jerks at the sight of it, he's already had one bad experience with a knife in the last ten minutes, Zoro can't see Sanji wanting one near him again anytime soon.

 

"It's okay, I'm helping." Ace says and Zoro watches as the tip of Ace's finger turns to a blue cone of flame. Sanji still looks startled and Zoro realises that Sanji doesn't seem to be understanding Ace. His mind is so shot that he's losing his language skills.

 

"He's going to stop the bleeding, you need to hold still and look at me, okay?" Zoro says calmly. He reaches out and takes Sanji's face in his hands. He's careful not to jostle Robin's hand. Apparently Sanji got too weak to clamp down on his neck with the proper force and so Robin has taken over. He meets her eyes for a moment and he can see in her expression that she doesn't think that Sanji is going to live. Franky's expression is the same and Usopp just looks in agony but there's still hope there, even if it's powered by denial. Zoro looks right back at Sanji again. He brushes the blood damp hair out of his eyes and holds him tight. Sanji is strong, he's not going to die. He won't.

 

"It's not that bad." Sanji says unevenly.

 

"Then it doesn't matter if he does it or not, does it? So Ace is going to stop the bleeding." Zoro insists.

 

"Robin, move your hand." Ace says in the same commanding voice that Luffy can use. Ace holds the knife close to Sanji's skin and Zoro can see that it's almost white hot. That knife is going to be useful for fuck all after this, it won't have an edge at all.

 

Robin moves her hand and the surge of blood that runs from the wound confirms everything that Ace said.

 

He looks Sanji in the eye and smiles in what he hopes is a reassuring way, although it feels tight and fake on his face.

 

"Hold still." He says softly.

 

Ace reaches into the wound, ignoring the flood of blood coming out and presses his blade to something. Sanji hisses between his teeth but to his credit he doesn't move, he doesn't jolt, he doesn't flinch. Sanji is strong.

 

"You're strong, you can do this." He tells Sanji because it's true and he fucking needs to hear it.

 

"Water." Ace says and Usopp instantly produces some. Robin takes it from him and pours it over Sanji's neck, a drop of it hits Ace's blade and it boils and spits instantly. The blood is slower now, but still coming.

 

"A little more." Zoro says soothingly and rubs Sanji's cheekbone. There's blood on it and he's smearing it as he does so. His heart is in his throat and he wants to scream and break things, he wants to destroy everything. He wants to do anything to make himself feel better and to let out this terrible tension. He can't though, he's needed and that's more important.

 

"Nnngh." Sanji groans as Ace presses the burning knife against him again and Zoro feels the pained exhale of breath against his wrist.

 

More water is run over Sanji's neck and that seems to be as close as they can get. A flutter of petals flows by Zoro’s vision and he looks at Robin in surprise.

 

“I’ve been talking to Nami, she’s bringing the horses. You need to take him to a doctor.” Robin asserts and though Zoro can see in her eyes that she thinks it’s hopeless she’s not going to stop trying, even if it’s just for his sake. Zoro loves her and things like this are the reason that she is nakama. Unlike that bastard Kaku. He should have seen this, he should have suspected, he should have kept Sanji at his side, he should have spent less time arguing with Ace and gone to find Kaku right away. If he had done any of those things then Sanji wouldn’t be in this position.

 

Ace holds his knife off to the side and Zoro watches as it heats up even further, regaining its lost heat and then some.

 

"This is gonna suck." Ace says unhappily and pinches the skin at Sanji's neck together. He raises the knife and presses it to the skin in a long line, longer than is probably needed. Only the knife goes right through Ace's own fingers, which turn into flame at the injury. Ace hisses and pulls his hand back, it seems the he can hurt himself with his own fire, at least a little anyway.

 

"Okay... We're done." Ace announces, stepping back.

 

"That wasn't so bad." Sanji says in a slightly strained voice that Zoro only half believes. Even so, Sanji managed to hold still for something that would have made lesser men scream and try to escape from.

 

Sanji is strong.

 

He repeats it a few more times in his head because if Sanji is strong then he can't die. That's how it works. He just can't think about it for too long or other ideas will start creeping in.

 

"Horses!" Nami shouts, pulling hers up to a sudden stop by them.

 

It takes Zoro a second or two to recognise the horse that's with Nami. It's not his or Sanji's, it's Franky's.

 

"He's fast, he can keep up with my trains and he's used to carrying me, I'm heavier than either of you. The saddle's bigger, you can take Sanji to a doctor with him and fast." Franky says firmly, stepping away from Sanji, who wobbles slightly at his sudden departure, and Franky starts pulling his horse closer to Zoro and Sanji.

 

"Doctor? I don't need a doctor. Ace just... fixed me 'm fine. I just need to sleep it off." Sanji says slowly.

 

"NO! You are not- don't go to sleep! Stay awake, we're getting you to a doctor!" Zoro shouts. If Sanji 'goes to sleep' he'll be passing out and he may never wake up from that. Sanji needs to stay awake.

 

"Calm down." Sanji says, shushing him and leaning forward against Zoro. He looks like he's drunk but he's not, he's becoming weak and confused from blood loss.

 

"No." Zoro says firmly and climbs up onto the horse. He turns around and Franky hauls a protesting Sanji up into the air and deposits him on the thankfully larger saddle that just has room for the two of them. Sanji fits in front of Zoro and he can keep his injured husband close to him.

 

"I don't know which way the closest doctor is, I guess our best bet will be to go to-" Nami starts to say.

 

"No. We're going to Drum. Kureha is the best doctor I've ever known. She's a witch doctor, if anyone can fix Sanji and fast it's her." He says sternly.

 

Nami looks at him with wide eyes but she clearly sees that Zoro isn't going to back down. He's not, Kureha is the very best doctor. His parents travelled all the way to her from Shimotsuki for him to be born, no one else was good enough for them. Kureha can help. If Sanji is as gravely injured as Ace said, and Zoro can't deny the extent of Sanji's injuries any more, then he's going to need the very best doctor that he can get.

 

"Zoro, Drum is over a hundred miles away from here. Even if we rode the horses to death without stopping it would take almost a day, even with me cutting the route as much as I can." Nami says in a whisper quiet voice.

 

"Sanji needs her." Zoro says firmly.

 

"Sanji is right here. C'n talk for myself you know." Sanji slurs in Baratian and Zoro holds him a little tighter.

 

"Okay, let's stop wasting time." Nami nods and turns her horse around, she cracks the reins and sets off at as fast as a pace as is possible through the semi sparse woodlands. They break out back into the camp with their nakama running behind them.

 

"WAIT!" Usopp calls out. Zoro halts, and looks over. Usopp is out of breath and rushing to Sanji's horse.

 

"If you're going through Drum you need this. A doctor's no use if you freeze him to death!" Usopp shouts and throws a thick coat at Zoro. It's Sanji's coat.

 

Zoro nods and crushes it up into a bundle and straps it to the back of the horse. He can't help but notice that almost everything has been stripped from Franky and Nami's horses, no extra weight. He snaps the reins and heads in Nami's direction, she didn't completely stop. Zoro passes Kaku as he goes. The traitor is looking at him with wide and disbelieving eyes. Luffy has him tied up and pretty tightly by the looks of it. His captain nods at them as they pass.

 

Nami stands up in her saddle for a moment and eyes the landscape around them, wrinkling her nose a little as she does so. Zoro suspects that her witchiness extends to more than just the weather and he trusts her sense of direction with his life. With Sanji's too. She sits back down and urges the horse onwards. She and Zoro set off at a hugely fast speed. He doesn't want the horses to tire out in less than a mile, but he's going to run them as fast as he can. He would never normally push horses like this. They can only run for so long and so fast before they will literally die. It's an awful thing to do to an animal, but if it's to save Sanji's life he'd kill a hundred horses. All the same he'd rather that the horses and Sanji all live.

 

As they ride Sanji complains and Zoro baits him into it. They set a blistering pace and Nami weaves them around landscape features, she keeps her eyes on the setting sun and then when it's gone she watches the stars. Nami manages to find a lantern in the packs and lights it. The jerking light is disorienting and kills a lot of their night vision, but it'll stop the horses tripping over and breaking their legs. If that happened to even one of their horses they'd be doomed. Sanji would have to go with Nami and Zoro would be left behind, if he's lucky he'd be met by his nakama who are following after them at a slower pace, though no doubt as fast as they can manage with their group and their prisoner. They might not go the same route though and Zoro has no idea where they are at all.

 

They go along and within a few hours Sanji's speech becomes more and more slurred, eventually unintelligible and he rises to less and less of Zoro's insults and opinions designed to make Sanji keep talking, to keep him awake. When Sanji stops speaking for several minutes and then nearly falls of the horse Zoro feels his panic rise. Sanji is limp against him, the only reason that he's still on the horse is because Zoro is holding him there.

 

"Sanji, Sanji wake up!" He shouts, taking one hand off of the reins to shake him. There's no response from Sanji and Nami looks back at them with a worried pinch to her brow.

 

Zoro swallows down his fear, it'll do him no good right now. All he can do is rely on Nami to get them there, to find the best route, to do what no one else can. He keeps one arm around Sanji and holds him close, feeling the slow thud of his heart against his hand and the slow breathing that reminds him that despite all odds Sanji is still alive.

 

In the middle of the night they stop, the air has got incredibly cold and there is snow here and there. Zoro climbs off the panting horse and they give them both water. Zoro shoves food into his mouth and he and Nami both take the chance to relieve themselves. When he gets back after the fastest piss he has had in his life he sees Nami forcing Sanji's limp body into his coat and buttoning it up tight. They get back onto their horses and continue riding on.

 

When day starts to break and pale light starts to touch them he notices that Sanji's fingers are starting to go blue. It's cold as fuck out here and Sanji has barely any blood in his system to circulate in the first place.

 

"Hold up." He says and stops their desperately tired horses. He pulls Sanji off of the horse and gets him out of the coat for a moment. He takes Sanji's arms from inside the sleeves and shoves them up against his bare skin, under his stiff blood encrusted shirt. He does the buttons up again and climbs on the horse, it's steaming in the cold, the heat and moisture from its efforts dissipating into the air around them.

 

"If Sanji wakes up and sees that I've let him get frostbite, or if his fingers fall off from it then even Kureha won't be able to save my life." He says to Nami with a laugh that falls flat. Nami smiles at him in a pained kind of way and they crack on further.

 

"How much farther?" He asks her after a while, Sanji's breathing is getting slower and slower and he's had to check the uninjured side of Sanji's neck a few times to find his ever so weak and ever so slow pulse.

 

"Close enough for us to speed up more." Nami says after a moment of looking up at the sky and the topography of the land around them. She cracks her reins again and her horse speeds up with Zoro's borrowed one following suit.

 

Zoro is an experienced rider, he's ridden for long distances before, he's had to haul ass as fast as possible on a horse before, but he has never gone this fast for this long on a horse and his whole body is in pain right now. He can ignore it though, he has to.

 

The last half hour before they're at Kureha's mountain is far slower going than Zoro would have liked, though still faster than most people would have expected. The snow is either high and difficult for the horses to get through, or else it's compacted on the roads, demanding slower going.

 

"That's... that's it?" Nami asks, breathing hard and looking up at the chimney shaped mountain that looms before them.

 

"That's it, her castle is on the top of there." Zoro confirms with a nod.

 

"How are we going to- cable cars!" Nami blurts out, cutting herself up mid sentence as she points to the cables stretching from a high hillside and up to the mountain. They urge their horses on the last bit further and come to a halt before them, leaping off of the horses. Zoro has Sanji in his arms and he looks around desperately for someone to operate them. There's no one around but there is a large inn like building within sight.

 

"Come on!" He calls and the pair of them sprint towards it. Zoro kicks in the door and realises at that moment that he has no idea what language the people of Drum speak. When he came through here last it all sounded like gibberish to him and Robin did the talking. They didn't even come through this part. Robin knows so many languages that the odds are that it isn't either of the two that Zoro speaks.

 

"You out of here!" The man holding barstools shouts, looking incredibly surprised at their entering. Zoro is flooded with relief. That's Baratian that the man is speaking, or something close. It sounds odd and the sentences feel weird but he can understand it enough.

 

"Get the cars running! It's an emergency!" Zoro shouts at the man, hoping that the guy will put the unconscious man in his arms and the demand for the doctor together and realise that he really does need help.

 

"No, get!" The man argues back.

 

Zoro turns his back on the guy and walks to Nami, he gently lowers Sanji to her to she's holding him in her arms. She probably can't do that for all that long but he's not going to leave Sanji in her arms for that long. He moves to face the innkeeper again.

 

"Listen to me, that is the Prince of Baratie and I'm the Prince of Shimotsuki, you WILL get us up there so that we can save his life!" Zoro growls. The man looks at them suspiciously before shaking his head.

 

"Get that cable car running or I will personally invade this entire country and burn it to the ground do you fucking understand me?!" Zoro yells, grabbing the man by the front of his shirt and shaking him.

 

The man now looks appropriately scared. Zoro doesn't care and right now he is on the fence about whether or not he'll actually carry through the whole 'burning Drum to the ground' thing. If they keep fucking around with Sanji's health then he may just do it. Zoro drags the man outside by his shirt and shoves him towards the hill. He takes Sanji back off of Nami and the pair of them follow the terrified man to the hilltop.

 

It seems like the man doesn't have too clear an idea of how the cable car mechanism works but apparently a furious prince with three swords and a very angry and tired witch with lightning running up and down her staff is a great motivator for learning. With a pleased 'ah-hah!' the cable cars start whirring, powered by some kind of steam that comes from somewhere that Zoro couldn't possibly give less of a shit about. He and Nami leap aboard the closest one and wait with burning tension as it carries them up to the mountain top at what is probably a decent pace but to Zoro feels is achingly slow.

 

After what seems like an eternity they leap from the cable car and sprint towards the large intimidating castle. Zoro was born here and he came here again when he was five to see her again, though he can't remember why. He had thought that perhaps the castle was only huge in his memories but it is still giant. He rushes up to the door and kicks at it with a fury that would make Sanji proud.

 

"KUREHA!" He screams as loudly as he can and kicks the door again.

 

"Come on, come on..." Nami says under her breath, touching Sanji's face and looking down at him with worry.

 

The giant oak door creaks open and instead of the old woman that he was expecting there's some kind of... reindeer... tanuki... thing.

 

"Let me in! He needs Kureha!" Zoro demands, he doesn't care what the fuck answers the door as long as Sanji gets to Kureha.

 

"Come in!" The... thing says and the door is hauled open.

 

Zoro and Nami run inside, with Sanji still limp in Zoro's arms. The little furry creature leads them upstairs but before they make it to the top Kureha herself peers down at them, evidently trying to see what the commotion is.

 

"Kureha! It's Zoro, you have to help me! Sanji's hurt!" He shouts up at her in Tsukian as he runs up the stairs. He knows that she speaks it, his parents always spoke it to her.

 

"Roronoa Zoro." She says, recognising him.

 

"Please, his throat is cut. We closed it up as best we could but he's getting worse, he's not even conscious now!" He pleads, rushing up the stairs and holding out Sanji for her to see. Kureha looks down at Sanji, her wrinkled brow furrowing even more in concern.

 

"Bring him here." She says quickly and marches off at a fast pace, leaving Zoro to catch up quickly.

 

Kureha gestures to a medical bed and Zoro carefully puts Sanji down. He unbuttons Sanji's coat and slides him out of it. The coat comes free of Sanji's shirt with a sticky ripping sound and Zoro once again sees the horrifying blood stained shirt, there's almost no blue left on it and it makes Zoro's heart clench to see it.

 

"You cauterised it?" She asks, leaning down and inspecting it.

 

"A... a friend did." Zoro says, Ace definitely counts as that now.

 

"That probably saved his life. Let me see, how long ago did this happen? Half an hour at most?" Kureha asks, not even looking at them. She listens to Sanji's shallow breathing and the barely there thud of his heart that Zoro has checked so many times himself.

 

"Eleven... hours ago." Zoro says uncertainly, looking to Nami who nods.

 

"ELEVEN HOURS?!" Kureha screeches in disbelief, whipping around to look at them. Zoro and Nami both nod and Kureha looks at Sanji again with wide eyes.

 

"He should be dead." She says in shock.

 

"Sanji's strong, but he still needs you!" Zoro pleads and Kureha seems to shake her shock off.

 

Kureha narrows her eyes and holds her hand over Sanji's chest, the air gets that slick oil feel of magic again and a reddish glow runs around her fingers.

 

"Chopper. He needs blood, get me all of the S RH- that you can find." She barks out at the smallish creature that had let them in.

 

"I- That's so rare, I don't know how much we have. B-but I'll go get it all!" He says quickly and dashes off as fast as his little legs can carry him.

 

Zoro watches as Kureha takes a knife and slices right through Sanji's ruined shirt, through the front and through his arms. She yanks it upwards and effectively divests him of it but barely moves him in the process. Zoro looks down at it on the floor and finds himself thinking that Sanji is going to complain so much about his clothes being ruined on this trip. It's a stupid thing to think and he's probably in shock of some kind but looking at the shirt that would be fancy and frilly for any Tsukian and yet understated for a Baratian just makes him feel... strange. It's almost black now with Sanji's dried blood.

 

He looks back up to Sanji and without the shirt he can see the blond's blood smeared skin and the deathly pale of the cleaner parts. His chest moves in shallow breaths that are far too far apart for Zoro's liking. Sanji looks like he's fighting to draw each one in and he looks like he can't fight for much longer.

 

Kureha has some kind of cuff around Sanji's arm and she's measuring something or another by inflating it.

 

"Far too low." She mutters to herself and stands up again.

 

She places her hands on Sanji's neck and his chest. She closes her eyes and Sanji's skin glows slightly where her hands are.

 

"His artery was sealed pretty well, but not well enough. He's bleeding internally. The blood's running from his throat and into his chest, he's having trouble breathing." Kureha says slowly.

 

"Can you-" Nami begins to say but Kureha cuts her off with a sharp hiss.

 

The room feels darker and slick again and her fingers seem to dig through Sanji's skin and the man's body arches off of the bed slightly. When she jerks her hands back Sanji drops back onto the bed fully and draws in a deep gasping breath before settling down into a slightly better breathing rhythm. The tightness in Zoro's chest eases a little.

 

"Thank you Chopper." Kureha says as the brown furred creature rushes back up to her. He hooks the bags of blood up to some metal stand and quickly wires them up into a single tube. The creature manages to get a needle into Sanji's arm and Zoro watches as the blood slowly seeps down into Sanji's system, replacing what he's lost. Kureha drags a thick blanket out from under the bed and pulls it up to Sanji's ribs, moving him so that his hands and arms are above it.

 

"Watch him." Kureha instructs the deer like boy.

 

Kureha ushers Nami and Zoro a little way away and looks at them both with pursed lips.

 

"Who is he and how did this happen?" She asks them, looking from one of them to the other as if she suspects one of them. That's stupid though, why would either of them hurt Sanji, and if they did why would they go to all of this trouble to get him help?

 

"He's Sanji, the Prince of Baratie. We're... we're married." Zoro answers softly, looking over at Sanji again.

 

"The prince?" Kureha repeats with wide eyes.

 

"One of our knights, a friend of ours... or we thought he was at least. He tried to kill him. Our nakama's brother burnt his throat closed and we got here as fast as we could. But he's going to be okay now, right?" Nami asks, though she sounds unsure.

 

Kureha looks at both of them and sighs deeply.

 

"I don't think he'll make it." She says quietly and Zoro jolts.

 

"WHAT? No! No you fixed him, he's breathing better and you're giving him blood, he has to be fine!" Zoro shouts desperately.

 

"Which one of us is the doctor here?" Kureha says with narrowed eyes.

 

Zoro looks over at Sanji in horror. They had done everything they could, they rode as fast as possible, he had kept Sanji awake for as long as he could, he had kept him warm. There was nothing else that they could have done. They can't have gone through all of that and brought Sanji to the best doctor around for it to be of no use. He HAS to be fine! Sanji is strong. He's strong. He repeats it over and over again because it's true and he HAS to live, he just has to.

 

"Kureha, if you had to place a bet on it. What kind of odds would you give him? A fifty-fifty odds? One in five even?" Nami asks, trying to put this in her language and make it more specific.

 

"This isn't a gambling matter." Kureha answers flatly.

 

"Just tell us how likely you think it is that he'll live." Nami pleads.

 

Kureha sighs and turns towards Sanji crossing her arms in front of her and looking regretful.

 

"I'd say... one in ten for him living past the hour. One in a hundred for him to live to sunset. One in a thousand for him to make it to the next day... after that there's no chance. I'm sorry. It's just a matter of how long he'll hold on before he goes." Kureha answers slowly.

 

"You're wrong." Zoro asserts, clenching his fists tight.

 

Kureha looks at him and her lined face shows anger at first but then it softens into sadness.

 

"You were supposed to be married to him? A treaty between Shimotsuki and Baratie by way of your relationship?" She questions him.

 

"We ARE married." Zoro corrects her sharply.

 

"I suppose that you had eventually intended on a child, an heir to both thrones to unite your countries permanently." She says after a moment or two.

 

"Eventually we would have come to you, yes. You're the best." Zoro answers with a frown, looking at her. He doesn't see what this has to do with Sanji, not unless she's trying to distract him.

 

"Heh, I am the best. I was good enough to bring you into the world and you didn't turn out half bad." She laughs at him and pokes him in the cheek. Zoro rolls his eyes and sighs, for a moment the weight lifts from his shoulders a little. She's helping at least a little, him being worried sick won't do him or Sanji any favours. Even if she's wrong about Sanji, which she clearly is, there is no good that will come from his stress or fears.

 

"Even if you gave him the stupidest hair possible." Nami jokes, reaching up and tugging at Zoro's hair.

 

"Well all magic born children end up like it, bright yellow is the closest that I could have got to normal but who wants to be that? Besides, there's no good hiding what you are." the old woman shrugs.

 

"I'm not ashamed." Zoro answers indifferently. No matter what Sanji's cousins say he's just as real as any person born 'normally'. He doesn't have any kind of issue with it at all. If anything his parents ought to be pleased, having a child the normal way looks like it's just a lot of pain and inconvenience.

 

"I'm serious though," Kureha says as all joking disappears from her face, "you might want to consider having a child right now. I can't produce a child with a dead parent, I need live blood and tissue from both of you. Sanji hasn't got much time so if you want an heir out of this marriage then you need one now." She says firmly.

 

Zoro's eyes widen. No. They were supposed to have years and years before they even considered this. He can't bring Sanji here to be healed and then just create a child because he has no faith in his survival. Maybe it's the sensible thing to do but if he does it and Sanji lives, which he will, then will the other man ever forgive him for his lack of faith and producing a child even though they're almost certainly not ready for one? And if Sanji doesn't survive, a thought that Zoro's whole being squirms away from, then could he really cope with looking at a child that had Sanji's features on them? Could he look his child in the face and see eyes as blue as Sanji's or skin as pale or even the same grace in their movements and not think of Sanji? Surely he would be filled with regret and guilt his whole life and it would just be worse for every time he saw their child and saw his lost husband in that child's face. That's a terrible thing to do to a person, both himself and any heir of his.

 

No, he won't do it.

 

"No. No, Sanji is going to get better and years from now we'll be back. He's going to live." Zoro says with a shake of his head. He has faith.

 

"If I could bottle that conviction and use it as medicine then I could cure death itself Zoro, but I can't." the doctor says sadly.

 

She looks at Sanji and the little furry creature next to him checking everything over.

 

"This is Chopper, he's a doctor and my assistant. He's very good. I'm trusting Sanji's care to him," She says confidently and the little doctor jerks in shock.

 

"B-but Doctorine I-" The reindeer or tanuki starts to protest.

 

"He CAN care for him, and if there are any problems your nakama can get me. I'm going to go and research, I'll see if I have any spells for a condition this severe. Just because I think that he's going to die doesn't mean that I'm going to give up on him. I don't surrender so easily." Kureha says with conviction.

 

"Thank you." Zoro says in a voice barely above a whisper. Sanji can live through this but he can't do it without help. He knows that no matter how strong Sanji is that if he hadn't got him to Kureha then he would have died for sure. But now that he's here everything will be okay.

 

Kureha nods and then walks off, her heeled boots clicking on the stone floor. He and Nami watch her go in a silence that weighs heavy on them.

 

Zoro pulls up an armchair next to Sanji's bed and sits down heavily in it, looking at Sanji and the burnt red and raw scar on his neck. That will be there for Sanji's entire life, there's no question about that. It'll forever be a reminder to Zoro as to how he failed Sanji.

 

"It's my fault." He says quietly and Nami looks at him in surprise. Her expression changes to one of hurt and she comes over to him and sits on the arm of the chair that he's in and leans over to wrap her arms around his shoulders.

 

"It's not, it's no one's fault but Kaku's." She says comfortingly and Zoro flinches at the word and feels that he almost wants to start hissing like a wildcat.

 

"But he was my knight, I trusted him, I let him be around Sanji." he points out miserably. He should have seen it sooner. He should have protected Sanji, that's his fucking JOB. He's Sanji's husband and though Sanji usually needs little protection he needed Zoro's then and he failed him. Protecting each other doesn't mean keeping the other entirely out of harm’s way or locking them in a castle tower where nothing can come close to them. He should let Sanji lead his own life but Zoro should be aware enough to know when he's needed and when he's not. He had one job and he screwed it up.

 

"No one knew, Zoro." Nami reasons. And Zoro shakes his head at that.

 

"Ace knew, he was warning me right when it happened. He took me off to warn me that he suspected Kaku and as I was standing there denying it and saying how trustworthy that bastard was he was off-" Zoro starts but he chokes off when he looks at Sanji. If he had just accepted Ace's word right away then they would have noticed that the pair were gone sooner and got there before anything happened, or he might have caught Sanji leaving with him in the first place.

 

"You think that's what Whitebeard had him come with us for?" Nami asks with a frown.

 

"That's what Ace thought." Zoro nods.

 

"That's kind of a leap though, isn't it? Whitebeard said he wanted him here but didn't say why and Ace just guessed that it was for an assassination attempt. It seems awfully convoluted." She says slowly and with narrowed and suspicious eyes.

 

"Are you saying that you think that Ace was involved?" Zoro frowns, that doesn't make sense.

 

"If he is involved then that makes him the absolute worst assassin ever. You heard Kureha, Sanji wouldn't have made it here without his aid." Nami says with a snort.

 

"So maybe Whitebeard had been suspecting treason somewhere and Ace picked up on that, even if Whitebeard didn't say it directly." Zoro theorises.

 

"Sanji did say that Kaku claimed that you were 'promised to him' when he attacked Sanji. There’s only one person who could marry you to Kaku against your will, and let's be honest, I can't think of anyone else you'd rather marry less right now." Nami says wryly.

 

"That's true." Zoro says darkly, there's no way that he would ever marry Kaku, he doesn't even want to see him if he can't execute the man. No, not a man, that rat, that scum, not even worth being called a rat. Nami rubs a soothing circle between his shoulderblades. She's not normally this sweet, she specialises more in tough love, but right now that's not what he needs and she evidently knows it.

 

"The only person who could carry through on that promise is your father and he's the last person who would arrange this. If the King wanted a war with Baratie he'd just declare one, not get to it like this. So someone must be planning a coup and recruited Kaku into doing their dirty work with the promise of you as some kind of reward when they were in power. They manipulated his supposed love for you to get what they wanted, not that anyone could call THAT love." Nami says with a furious light in her eyes. Shimotsuki might not be her birthplace but she loves Zoro's country dearly, as well as Zoro and his family, and the idea that someone would want to change all of that clearly does not sit well with her at all.

 

"So that traitor knew that there was a plot against my family and the country and he didn't tell us. Every time I think that he can't betray me more he manages to sink lower." he grits out angrily.

 

He reaches out and takes Sanji's hand. Sanji didn't deserve any of this, he's innocent and just caught in the crossfire. He's a pawn in someone else's plan to destroy Zoro's country and he nearly died for it. Zoro is personally going to find out who all of these traitors are who did this to him and Sanji and he's going to destroy every one of them. He'll drag them to his father and make sure that not only will they suffer the price for their crimes but make sure that no one ever thinks to try something like this again. It's one thing to try to become the King by challenging Mihawk to a duel, but to realise that it isn't possible to win like that and to choose this method instead, it's lower than low.

 

Sanji's fingers are pale and cold in his hand. He will get revenge for this.

 

"Chopper... wasn't it?" Zoro says, looking down at the little animal who is apparently a doctor. He's been ignoring his presence at Sanji's side in favour of talking to Nami, but now he needs his opinion.

 

"Yes?" Chopper says, but he sounds wary and afraid. Zoro supposes that he's not made the most peaceful kind of impression since he's been here.

 

"Sanji needs his hands, he's a chef as well as a prince. I put them in his coat so that he didn't lose them to frostbite but they're so cold now, is he going to lose them anyway?" Zoro asks, fearing that Chopper's answer will be yes.

 

Chopper hums thoughtfully and takes Sanji's hand in his own. He bends and flexes Sanji's long and delicate fingers, fingers that Zoro has seen work with skill and strength in the kitchen, fingers that help him execute precision perfect flips and movements in a fight. Chopper presses on Sanji's fingernails and feels his temperature.

 

"Well, there's no frostbite, you saved him from that. The lack of reasonable blood circulation might in theory lead to a little nerve damage but if Sanji does wake up from this then I don't think that his fingers will be damaged." Chopper answers.

 

"Not if, when." Zoro corrects him sharply. Chopper looks up at him for a moment and then nods, as if he accepts the strength of Zoro's conviction as truth.

 

The three of them fall into silence after that. Chopper regularly measures Sanji's blood pressure, his pulse and how he's breathing. He notes it down on a chart every ten minutes or so but he doesn't share the results with them, Zoro thinks it might be too technical for him to understand anyway. Sanji lasts the first hour, beating Kureha's ten to one odds as Zoro knew Sanji would.

 

“Is he getting better?” Zoro asks eventually, making Chopper look up from the notes that he’s taking.

 

“No.” Chopper answers, looking down at his notes with a frown. Zoro’s heart sinks more than just a little

 

“Is he getting worse?” Nami asks.

 

“No, he’s staying just as he is. Which is good. A stable condition is a good place to be, it’s better than I hoped for at this point.” Chopper admits.

 

“Sanji can surprise you like that.” he answers and Nami laughs.

 

“You have it really bad for him Zoro, you know that? It’s a little bit sickening.” She says with a catlike grin. Zoro shoves her in the side. Somehow being treated like normal makes this whole thing feel a little less awful.

 

“Okay, I’m going to go and sleep on the sofa over there. I’m exhausted, but wake me up if you need me for anything.” Nami says gently and rubs her hand hard in Zoro’s hair as she walks over to a large if slightly ragged looking sofa across the side of the room.

 

Sanji’s condition doesn’t deteriorate and he makes it to sundown and into the night, surpassing Kureha’s doubts, she set the odds and a hundred to one that Sanji would live this long. Zoro wants to stay awake with him, but he’s been up for nearly two days straight and both of them involved an obscene amount of horse riding, which is exhausting in its own right. Kureha and Chopper moved Sanji to a large and more comfortable bed when the blood running into him ran out. They put him on a drip for a while which apparently held something that would stop him dehydrating and giving him energy too, Sanji would no doubt decry it for not being food.

 

Kureha left an hour ago to force blood from the townsfolk below and Zoro doesn’t much care to speculate on her methods of persuasion. He’s trying to stay awake, to keep himself aware of Sanji at all times, but his head keeps dropping forward with the pull of sleep, only for him to jerk awake over and over.

 

“The bed is big enough you know. If you want you can be by his side and sleep too. I’ll wake you up if… if anything happens.” Chopper says sweetly and Zoro gratefully climbs onto the bed next to Sanji. He doesn’t want to dislodge Sanji’s blanket so he just stays next to him as it is.

 

A part of him wonders if this is like sleep for Sanji. He knows from his experiences of being unconscious that it’s not but he would like to think that it is. Maybe some part of Sanji is uncomfortable because he’s having to sleep on his back, instead of tucked into Zoro’s side with his leg over Zoro’s and his sharp knee digging into the inside of Zoro’s right thigh.

 

A tiny part of him is afraid that if he doesn’t keep watching Sanji that he’ll fade away, that Sanji will die and he won’t even be awake to be there for him. He feels like he’s four again and irrationally afraid that there are monsters in the dark and if only he pretends to be asleep then they can’t get him, except now he’s afraid that if he actually does fall asleep then the worst will happen.

  
He doesn’t contemplate it for long because exhaustion, both physical and emotional, pull him down into sleep with his hand loosely tangled with Sanji’s cool fingers. 


	21. Chapter 21

It's raining. When Zoro opens his eyes he has to blink and sit up quickly because it'll really hurt if he gets this in his eyes.

 

His hair is plastered slick to his head and he's on his ass in the middle of a grass covered field. Unsteadily he stands and looks around, there's no one else there and so at random he picks a direction and starts walking. He's not entirely sure how he got here or even where here is and nor does he know where he's going. Nevertheless he finds a gorge before too long. Gorge is the wrong word really, that suggests a jagged scar in the ground, a divide between cliffs ending only in rocks and certain death. No, this is some kind of river.

 

From what he can see the walls of it are hard rock and jagged in places too. He can’t see quite how deep it is, whenever the water on the surface isn’t reflecting light he can see deep rock walls disappearing down into dark unending blue. The water is a deep and dark blue but it's not still, the way it whirls and swirls around tightly in places reminds him of the seemingly placid waters around Nami's home. He watches it a moment or two more, it is temptingly beautiful but something about it makes him aware that it's deathly dangerous. All the same he feels this pull towards it, not unlike the sudden impulse to leap off of something high, just because it's there. It's irrational, getting in there will almost certainly drown him.

 

He hesitates but gives in a little and crouches down. He watches the water a little closer and the way it moves, it's quick and turbulent but in places it seems glass smooth. There's no way that it should be able to be both. Curiously and carefully he reaches down a little to the water's surface and just touches it, submerging his fingers only halfway. The water grabs him and drags his arm away with a whip fast movement that Zoro is only just able to counterbalance and stop himself being dragged under.

 

This is clearly a terrible idea. He didn't sign up for this, he was just walking along going where he had to and then he came across this. He should just ignore it or leave, he has places to be.

 

He can ignore this.

 

He leans forward again, carefully this time. He knows that this water could take him and drown him in an instant and that deserves a healthy respect. He reaches down and just lets his fingertips ghost the surface, more stroking it than he is submerging himself. Strangely the water feels placid, not the furious, tempestuous torrent that it had been before. It feels... calm. He runs his fingers along it and the more he does it the more the impulse just to climb in grows.

 

No, he shouldn't. He doesn't know how deep this thing goes and wanting something doesn't make it a good idea. All the same he doesn't want to leave the water. He should continue walking. He stands up and intends to do just that. He has to follow the water, that's the path he must walk now, where it goes he has to go, but leaping into it is foolish and unnecessary. As he walks by the waterside the ground beneath him dips down and the water from the creek starts to lap over the lowered stone ground and wash over his boots.

 

Zoro pauses. Between the rain above and the water below him, he has no choice in getting drenched. He takes off his boots and feels the water run over his skin. It's not that the water pulls him closer or anything, it's more that he feels himself veering towards the lowering stone bank rather than the far safer and far more sensible path beside it. The path doesn't diverge, but it widens and he sticks to the closest side to the water and before he knows it he's up to his knees in it. An edge of fear touches his mind, at any moment he could get swept under, he saw for himself just how dangerous this water could be. But as soon as the fear appears at the edge of his mind it flows away. If he was going to drown here it would have happened by now.

 

He stops and looks at the water. He's already halfway in, it's up to his waist now somehow. He's not swimming in it, not submerged, he's playing at both and it feels nice, the thought of giving up the world above the waves is growing.

 

Suddenly the water starts to recede. Where it was at his hips it's rapidly dropping, to his knees, to his ankles and there not on him at all. The water is dropping and fast, jagged rocks and caves being revealed and Zoro knows that the water has never been this low, that these rocks have never and should never be exposed to the air. Something is very wrong. The rain above him stops almost as suddenly as it had started when it woke him. The rocks around him are drying quickly, far too quick.

 

He rushes down now, leaping from rock to rock, half climbing down and half falling. When he lands at the bottom of what should be the river but now really is a gorge he finds that the water is barely to his knees. This was supposed to be a powerful flowing river and whatever has happened it’s left it as deep scar in the land and nothing like what it should be. The water level is still dropping but now it's far slower.

 

He turns against the flow of the water and runs, tripping up here and there as he goes. If someone asked him he's not sure that he could explain what he's doing but he knows that he has to find why the water has stopped, he has to fix it.

 

The water is down to his ankles when he sees it, a tumble of rocks and boulders are piled up so high that Zoro can only just see the top of them. Silhouetted against the light above he sees the figure of a man with a nose too long for his face and then he's gone. Here and there the water is seeping through the rocks, some of it is spilling over the top but that isn't the way this water is supposed to run. He can't just let it stay like this and he absolutely will not let it become worse.

 

He reaches for his swords but he finds himself unarmed and so he digs his fingers into the rocks pulling out any that he can manage. His fingers hurt and ache from it, the skin catching on sharp edges but he doesn’t care because this is more important. His effort is not enough and small rockslides are covering up the places where the water was leaking through. It's barely more than a trickle over his feet now and he starts desperately throwing himself at the seemingly unending rock wall. He looks up, with fear in his heart and he jumps. He climbs over rocks and hauls at any that he can pull loose, he nearly loses his balance time and time again but he's making progress. He doesn't know how he does it but he moves one rock and the whole wall shudders. He has a realisation that this is going to go very badly and it's just enough time for him to gasp in as much air as he can before he's slammed into the silt and sandy ground below.

 

He clasps his hand over his mouth and clings to the rock wall with the other as water crashes down, unleashed from its source and wreaking havoc on the rocks that had blocked it. What were once giant boulders smash against the seemingly indestructible walls of the creek and pulverise into little more than sand. Zoro clings to the wall and when the water stops being quite so destructive he lets go.

 

He looks up at the shining surface far above him and realises from the pressure in his chest that there is no way that he's going to make it to the surface in time. It's his own fault, he climbed down here of his own accord, he risked everything without thinking of where it would leave him. Now he's surrounded by this water and it could kill him, he's seen what it can do, he felt a taste of it before and now he's in here. It feels so far from the stupid impulse to throw himself in before, he hadn't understood then what it would mean to be down here, he had thought that he had but this is different.

 

The water isn't pulling at him, it hadn't pulverised him on the rocks and though he's moving ever so slightly in the flow of the creek he's not being dragged anywhere. The need to breathe is overwhelming and maybe he's wrong and he could make his way back to the surface and pretend that he doesn't want to be in the water, but...

 

He drops his hand and exhales the last of his air into the water around him. He watches the bubbles lazily float up and as he breathes in he knows that every breath that he takes will be water. It feels warm and tropical around him and he lazily leans back in the water and sinks down onto the sand bed at the bottom. He feels almost on the edge of sleep, a weightless feeling.

 

Now that he's not in danger of drowning and the water isn't running out he can see details that he couldn't have ever seen from above. The rocks around him have small patches of undersea plants curling here and there in the water as it flows. He can see just into the crevasses and inlets in the walls that hint at further depths that he doesn't know about, things that are hidden and entirely unknowable for anyone not down here. Which, he has to admit, seems about right. This place feels untouched. It feels like no one has ever been down here at all.

 

He lies there and looks up at the glittering and rippling surface far above him and realises distantly that the rain has started again and that's what's altering the shine of the water.

 

A shadow suddenly blots out the light above and Zoro jerks to alertness. He scrambles upright and sees just what it was that blotted out the light. There's a shark above him, cruising through the water. He hardly dares to breathe as he watches it, he knows that this creature is deadly. Its sleek body turns in the water, a bend that wouldn't be possible for any creature with human bones and with an effortless flick of its tail it cruises lower in the water. It's coming towards him.

 

As it comes closer he can see it better. The shark's body is clearly honed by generations and generations of its ancestors and this one is here and Zoro wonders if this is the thing that this body of water was meant to contain. The shining surface of the water above is beautiful and dangerous, but down here there is a darkness, there is this creature that is inhuman and perhaps shouldn't exist. It comes closer with a lazy swish of its tail and Zoro can see now that it's blue on the top and white underneath, the kind of colours that could make it almost invisible from afar, either from above or below.

 

This is a shark and sharks don't care about reasons, they don't care about morals or anything else. It is dark in a primal sort of way and he can see as it slices slowly through the water past him that it could be ruthless and merciless. Anyone who got this far beneath the surface and met this would not be able to survive.

 

He's not afraid.

 

He realises distantly that he should be, this water is beautiful and in its own right is fearsome, a perfect balance. But this deep dark thing that lurks here should scare him, it should make him want to escape the water but it doesn't. Zoro reaches out his hand and touches the sleek skin of the shark as it passes. The black eye of it blinks, a clear and prehistorically designed eyelid sliding over as it watches him. The shark circles back around and as Zoro watches it he feels more at ease. This thing is deadly but it is part of this place and he somehow knows that though it could kill him it never will, far from it, he suspects that this shark would lash out at anyone else who tried to get into this water at all. As sleek skin passes his fingers and the shark swims on Zoro feels... that this is familiar somehow.

 

This place isn't home, it's not even his, but all the same he never wants to leave. He's a guest but he still feels like he belongs here.

 

He sinks back down onto the sand and feels the whole river around him, every rock and hidden depth, the darkness of the shark, the dazzling light above and the smooth and graceful flow of the water. He breathes in and out and lets himself fall backwards in the water to come to rest on the sand fully. He watches all of it above him and as the water swirls through his lungs he wonders how he ever breathed without it.

 

Zoro jerks awake with a gasp and right before his eyes is a smooth wave of blonde hair. He pushes himself up to his hands and knees and stares at Sanji.

 

Sanji.

 

“Oh, shit.” Zoro breathes in shock.

 

That dream, that water, that… that everything, that was Sanji.

 

That was Sanji, the Sanji who is laid out on the bed next to him with his skin still ghost pale and bloodspattered in places where they didn’t manage to get all of it off. That was Sanji whose breathing is now too fast and too shallow to be healthy.

 

“Zoro, are you okay?”

 

Zoro’s head snaps to the side and Robin is there. He doesn’t know when Robin got here, it looks like it’s mid morning and his nakama looks tired. Nami was leaning against her side in the same large soft chair that he had been sitting in before, but as Robin speaks she starts to wake.

 

“Where’s Chopper and Kureha? He’s getting better, right?” Zoro asks as a hollow feeling in his chest grows. Nami and Robin don’t answer him right away and he stares at them as they look back.

 

“Chopper just left to get a drug, I don’t know what it’s called. It’s to fight… to fight the infection. It’s in his blood.” Nami says slowly.

 

“Blood poisoning. He’s got a fever. Chopper thinks that he can treat it though. In a healthy person if he and Kureha had caught it this quickly then it wouldn’t be much of a problem. But Sanji isn’t healthy right now.” Robin adds gently.

 

“So he’s not better, he’s worse.” Zoro says, his voice choking up. This can’t be happening.

 

“Zoro, what’s wrong? I mean, I know Sanji is what’s wrong but this seems different than before.” Nami presses, looking at him with concerned eyes.

 

Zoro drops back so that he’s sitting down, his knees almost to his chest and he presses the heels of his palms into his eyes.

 

“He’s a shark.” Zoro says, his voice sounding tight and wrong even to his own ears.

 

“What?” Nami says in bafflement.

 

“I was there, it was water. It was bright and dark and dangerous and strong he was… it was… he’s a shark.” He says, his voice catching on the words and his whole body curling tighter.

 

“The dream?” Nami gasps in shock.

 

“You dreamt of… oh Zoro. Oh Zoro, no. You know him.” Robin says in a hurt voice. And she’s not hurt because something is wrong with her, she’s hurt for him. She’s hurting because Zoro has fallen for Sanji as hard as it is possible to fall for someone, so hard that whatever magic it is that keeps the world spinning shoved his unconscious mind into everything that makes up Sanji’s soul and it felt perfect to him. And now Sanji is worse, he’s losing strength from one thing that should already have killed him and now something else seems to be coming in to finish the job. She hurts for him because he knows Sanji and now he’s going to have to watch him die.

 

Nami and Robin are suddenly around him, holding onto him and Zoro isn’t even crying, he’s beyond that. He needs to have faith in Sanji but part of him fears that Robin is right. He fears that Sanji might die.

 

* * *

 

I've got amazing update art again from the consistently awesome [genderfluidsanji](genderfluidsanji.tumblr.com) on tumblr!

 


	22. Chapter 22

The world returns to him slowly, first sound, then light and finally sensation. It’s that which jerks Sanji into sitting upright. He’s overwhelmed with a terrible pain inside of him, a clawing, scratching, bone aching pain. He kicks off the sheets on top of him and stumbles out of bed. His legs buckle underneath him and he hits the stone floor with all of his weight on his knees. He stumbles forward on his hands and knees for a pace or two before grabbing hold of his balance and teetering back onto two feet. His stomach churns in angry empty displeasure and he turns around on the spot. He’s in some kind of bedroom.

 

He stumbles towards the nearest door and throws himself at the barrier, hands scrambling for the handle. The door opens and he half walks and half topples through it. There’s stairs, he can do stairs. He’s half running and half falling as he goes but his barely awake mind is whirring. He’s in a big building, feels like a castle. Kitchen in the bottom.

 

He’s so hungry, he hurts with it.

 

Stairs, stairs, stairs.

 

He breathes in hard and fast and catches the distant smell of oil. He careens down the stone corridor, bouncing off of walls. The clean shine of burners and a metal sink has him screeching to a halt. He sprints into the room and his hip glances off one of the counters in his mad rush.. He wrenches the door to the icebox open and yanks out the first thing he finds. He’s eaten half of it before his brain pings him with the knowledge that it’s roast chicken.

 

That hitting his stomach blunts the edge of it ever so slightly, enough that when he next opens the fridge he’s sensible enough to throw bread down and make a sandwich rather than simply shoving things in his face as he finds them. He slaps things down on the bread as he gets his hands on them and then presses another slice of bread into the top. He’s halfway through it when a voice makes him pay attention.

 

“Sanji! Sanji are you-”

 

He looks up, swallowing thickly. That’s Zoro and Zeff next to him with his hand on Zoro’s chest.

 

“When’s the last time that he ate?” Zeff asks and the word ate makes him bit harder into the sandwich, he’s so hungry.

 

“Chopper’s been keeping him on this drip thing, it’s been feeding him what he needs he’s-” Zoro starts to say and Sanji tears the bite out of his sandwich and chews it hard.

 

“Not that, actual FOOD!” Zeff roars. Sanji’s stomach churns and he squeezes his eyes shut and whines. Large warm hands set on his shoulder.

 

“Sanji, slow down or you’re going to make yourself sick. You don’t want to lose it.” Zeff tells him.

 

Sanji swallows, his hands shaking.

 

“Talk to me Sanji.” Zeff says calmly and his face comes into focus, his lined brow creased further with worry.

 

“I’m so hungry.” Sanji croaks out and pain flares in Zeff’s eyes. Sanji bites into his food again but slower this time.

 

“You need a drink. You useless shit, get a glass!” Zeff snaps and Zoro jolts into action.

 

“It hurts.” Sanji says through his mouthful of food.

 

“I know. Put it down, drink this.” His father says soothingly, gently taking the unstable sandwich from his hands and pressing a large glass of water in there instead. Sanji drinks, his hands shaking too hard that the first few gulps ends up as much on his chest as they do in his mouth. Zeff’s hand steadies him and the old man murmurs about keeping it slow.

 

“Okay.” Zeff breathes out and pulls Sanji in close.

 

“You’re going to be fine, you’ve got a whole kitchen. You’re not back there, we’re fine, I’m here.” Zeff whispers into his hair, stroking the back of Sanji’s head.

 

Sanji presses his hand to his stomach. His senses are catching up enough to tell him that it’s not empty any more, that he’s not starving.

 

“I feel sick and my hip hurts. And my throat. Where am I? Why are you here?” He says in one long stream and Zeff lets him go and holds him at arm’s length.

 

“Are you going to be sick?” he asks. Sanji shakes his head.

 

“Your hip hurts?”  

 

Sanji looks around, that’s Zoro’s voice, it’s Zoro. Zoro’s still there. No, Zoro was there before and he didn’t go anywhere.

 

“Yeah.” Sanji nods and before Zoro can do it he pulls his shirt up and he can just see this bright red mark blossoming into a giant bruise.

“You’re fine, what about your throat?” Zeff says dismissively with an agitated huff through his thick nose hair.  

 

Sanji’s hand moves to his neck and under his fingers on the left side of his throat is a jagged and slick smooth line of skin there, it hurts to touch it. The wound runs from just an inch or so below his earlobe to just about an inch to the left of the centre of his throat proper. His mind flashes all at once over how he got it. Kaku grabbing Sanji’s own knife and slashing his throat open, only just missing the centre of his throat through the last minute fluke of Sanji looking around in the other direction. He should be dead.

 

But what about Kaku?

 

“Kaku…” Sanji breathes in horror, his hand still on his throat. “What happened? Is he dead?”

 

“Not yet unfortunately.” Zoro growls, his hands clenching tight at his sides.

 

“And what are YOU doing here? And where IS here?!” Sanji demands, throwing his hands in the air. Now that he’s not in danger of starving the rest of his brain is fully functional. Or at least more functional than before.

 

“You’re in Drum, you’re being looked after by two doctors, two of the best in the world.” Zoro says, moving closer to Sanji and to Sanji’s surprise Zeff actually moves out of the way for him. Zoro’s blunt fingers take Sanji’s off of the burnt on scar, Ace pressed a hot knife there didn’t he? He was bleeding too much.

 

“She sent me a message, with an eagle of some kind, though I’ve no clue how she did that. I got a letter saying where you were and that you’d probably be dead in a day, I wasn’t going to stay in the castle knowing that!” Zeff snarls and Sanji flinches.

 

“But I’m fine.” He protests weakly.

 

“YOU’RE NOT FINE!” Zoro screams at him and Sanji nearly jumps a foot in the air in shock.

 

“You almost bled to death before we even got you on the horse, you passed out before we were even a third of the way here and when we got you here Kureha said that the odds were that you wouldn’t live another hour!” Zoro shouts. His eyes are screwed shit and his fists clenched tight.

 

“Everyone thought that you were going to die, Kureha was certain that you wouldn’t make it through your first night! Almost none of the blood in your system now is YOURS it all belongs to other people, you got blood poisoning and it’s been a WEEK Sanji! No one thought you would live and I was starting to think that I’d never… that you would… then we came back in and you were just GONE! I thought that Kaku might have got free and...” Zoro’s voice is choked up and his body is shaking like a leaf.

 

“Zoro…” Sanji says in quiet horror. He slides off of the raised counter that he’s sitting on, intending on pulling Zoro into his arms. That plan literally falls short when he touches the ground and his legs decide not to support him and he nearly collapses onto the cold stone floor. He catches himself with his hands in Zoro’s shirt and both Zoro and his old man grabbing onto him.

 

“SEE!” Zoro shouts and picks Sanji up, holding him against his body.

 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” He apologises, his heart aching with guilt.  

“You idiot! You don’t have anything to be sorry for!” Zoro says angrily into Sanji’s shirt.

 

“You didn’t do anything wrong, stupid brat.” Zeff reprimands him.

 

“You’re both going to tell me?” Sanji asks with a weak smile.

 

“Don’t blame me, I can’t understand a goddamn word that he’s saying.” Zeff snorts and Sanji realises at once that he’d been hearing two different languages and not even noticed.

 

“You’re going back to bed.” Zoro informs him in Baratian this time and turns around, still holding Sanji against him.

 

“I can walk!” Sanji squawks indignantly.  

 

“No.” Zoro says simply.

 

“Are you still hungry kid, or can I leave your… turkey, angel cake, banana and… tuna sandwich here. Did you just grab anything you could get your pasty little hands on?” Zeff asks with a raised eyebrow.

 

“I’m not pasty!” Sanji protests. He tries to squirm out of Zoro’s grip but the prince just adjusts his hold and shifts Sanji up so he’s carrying him almost like a sack of potatoes on his shoulder. Sanji looks down at his hands and sees that his skin is a sickly kind of pale and concedes Zeff’s point. He really doesn’t want to be carried about.

 

Zoro hauls him up the stairs on his shoulder with Zeff following after. Zoro drops him onto a bed and Sanji bounces as he hits it. Zeff passes the two of them and walks off down a hallway. Zoro looks down at him from where he’s sat at the edge of the bed. He’s still looking at Sanji like he’s not quite real and that makes guilt flush hotly over his skin.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry." He says quietly and Zoro shakes his head.

"I knew that you'd wake up, you're too strong to die." Zoro answers with a weak laugh. Zoro turns and clambers onto the bed properly on his hands and knees and curls up against Sanji's side.

"Aren't we the wrong way around?" Sanji chuckles. Zoro's head is on his chest and shoulder and Sanji's arm is around Zoro's back and the other man has his thigh slung over Sanji's. It's the complete inverse of how they usually sleep, Zoro is the one on him instead of Sanji.

"Shut up. I knew you had to live, but I'd started to doubt you. I'm sorry." Zoro says, his voice muffled against Sanji's clothes.

"I got my throat cut and didn't wake up for a week, I think you're allowed to worry that I might not make it." Sanji says quietly and runs his hand up and down Zoro's ribs.

"If you'd died I'd wait until I did too, however much later that is, and the first thing I'd do in the afterlife is track you down and kick your ass. And then maybe kill you myself." Zoro tells him sharply and Sanji laughs so hard that Zoro's head falls back onto Sanji's arm.

"You'd kill my ghost?" He asks with a laugh. Zoro is scowling at him.

"I didn't get that last word but I know what you mean. I'd get revenge for you putting me through that." Zoro says with an angry flash in his eyes.

"I'm sorry." Sanji repeats again, rolling over a little and kissing Zoro's forehead.

"Speaking of the afterlife though, how come Kaku's not there? You must have found him but you said he's not dead yet. Did he get away? I'm pretty sure I kicked him hard enough to make that unlikely." Sanji says dubiously. Was he really so weak that he couldn't incapacitate a man like that?

"No we caught him. Nami stopped me. She said that if we didn't hand over that traitor to your father then he would think that we tried to kill you, that I would have-" Zoro shakes his head.

"It's up to the King to decide what to do to him. He was waiting until you woke up to decide what to do. I can't see him though, I'm not sure I can resist the need to end him like I had to the first time. I can't believe I trusted that treacherous bastard. I should have known that something was wrong when he reacted so badly to you, how he held a grudge after you beat him and-" Sanji cuts off Zoro's self abusive tirade by kissing him. Zoro whines slightly and his hand clutches hard in Sanji's shirt. It's not actually one of Sanji's shirts now that he comes to think of it, it looks like one of Zoro's. He's not sure how many useable clothes that he has left. He hadn't expected their journey to be this rough on his wardrobe.

"It's not your fault." Sanji says, his mouth still so close to Zoro's that their lips brush as he talks. He's pretty sure that Zoro isn't going to forgive himself though, if their positions were reversed he knows that he wouldn't forgive himself. Zoro presses his face against Sanji's shoulder again and to be honest the whole thing is starting to weird Sanji out a little. Zoro's not an emotionless guy, no matter how tough he seems. Zoro is almost acting... weak. Sanji doesn't think any less of him for it, on the contrary he's kind of honoured that Zoro is willing to be like this with him, but he's never seen Zoro so affected by something. He doesn't know if it's the stress of him being so close to death for so long, or the guilt, but a voice in the back of his head tells him that it's more accurately the fear of losing someone that he didn't expect to care so much about. It's unbelievable how close he feels to Zoro in such a short amount of time, he's fallen hard and fast and he's still not quite sure what Zoro would say that they are, it's his confusing system after all. Still, Sanji feels awful for making Zoro feel like this and he worries that when the shock wears off a little if Zoro will think less of him for barely making it. He holds Zoro a little tighter and hopes not.

The movement of putting himself closer to Zoro makes his head swim and evidently without the intense fear and pain of being that hungry his body is starting to run out on him again.

"I'm really tired." He admits into the softness of Zoro's hair.

Zoro jerks up and stares down at Sanji horror, perhaps thinking that Sanji is going to fall back into that death like sleep that he has only so recently awoken from.

"Don't make that face, I'm just exhausted is all. Now get back down here, you're the one who's supposed to be the one that I lie on." Sanji smiles teasingly and pulls Zoro down onto the bed on his back. Sanji sighs deeply as he settles into his usual place along Zoro's side and drifts almost immediately into sleep.

He wakes up in what seems to be the middle of the night. His body clock is being completely unhelpful but it's incredibly dark outside and there's no light in the room that he and Zoro are in. He sits up and climbs over Zoro.

"S'nji?" Zoro mumbles sleepily, reaching out for him.

"Go back to sleep, stupid moss hair." Sanji whispers and pushes Zoro's relaxed form back onto the bed. Zoro makes some incoherent sounds that are probably really sleep slurred speech but he rolls to the side into the void that Sanji left and his breathing immediately goes back into the slow deep pattern of sleep. Stupid man. Sanji may or may not be smiling like a loon as he looks at him.

He gets to his feet carefully and feels a lot less light headed and unstable than before. He still doesn't feel all that great and he wonders if that's as a result of the blood loss or this poisoning that he supposedly has. Either way he's not going to be running around and sparring with Zoro today. He gets a drink and finds the bathroom that he'd been looking for and when he washes his face in the sink and catches his reflection in the mirror he sees the dark bruise like circles under his eyes and understands a little better why Zoro is still so worried about him.

Maybe it's Zoro rubbing off on him or maybe it's the dark, but he finds himself lost. He walks through the castle barefoot and opening doors. He finds medical store rooms, a surgical theatre, a library and finally one room in particular. It's the big bolt on the door that stops Sanji and piques his interest. A lot of the doors in the castle have locks on them, the one that Sanji was in did and he had to unlock it to let himself out. But this bolt is on the outside, not the inside. This isn't a door for keeping people out, this is a door for keeping something in. He can take a wild guess as to what's in here.

He unlatches the bolt as quietly as he can and peers into the room. There's cuffs around both wrists and chains to the wall but he's in a bed. Sanji pauses at the sight of him. His blond hair is a mess and what skin that Sanji can see is littered with bruises and he doesn't have to guess too hard as to why. Around his middle is a tight wrap of bandages and Sanji comes to the conclusion that they're for broken ribs, evidently his defensive kick wasn't too weak after all.

"You look like shit." Sanji says, leaning against the door frame. He's not going to come any closer into the room. If Kaku can by any chance get free he'll have time to get out of the way, bolt the door and make a run for it. He's in no state to fight right now and he can admit that even with his strong sense of pride. Kaku groans and blinks, dragging himself out of sleep. He looks around at Sanji and he jerks upright into sitting, his eyes wide and angry, clearly nowhere near sleep any more.

"You." Kaku snarls and it stings that his tone is so different from the man that Sanji had thought that he was getting to know. It's the same as the angry and threatening voice that Kaku had used right before he tried to kill him though.

"Me." Sanji agrees.

Kaku looks like some kind of wild animal, as if he's considering finishing the job of cutting open Sanji's throat with his teeth instead this time. Sanji looks dubiously at the cuffs that Kaku is straining against angrily, they show no signs of budging.

"You're kind of a shit assassin you know, you couldn't even kill me with my own knife to my throat when I was on my knees. You literally had me by the hair and cut me and you still failed. How useless can you be?" Sanji snorts and Kaku jerks against his chains again.

"You should be DEAD!" Kaku shouts at him.

"Well, like I said, you're not very good. It takes more than that to kill me." Sanji says with a shrug. In all honesty he understands that it very nearly did kill him and his survival is almost certainly down to the actions of Ace and his doctors rather than any miraculous power on his own. The point about Kaku's failure to get the job done right was valid though. A man getting his throat cut should die in seconds, not be able to get up, fight their attacker off and live to tell about it.

"Practice makes perfect, I'll get out of here and you'll die. You deserve it." Kaku hisses.

"Why? All I ever did to you was beat you in a duel and I'd thought that we were starting to be friends. You were shouting about Zoro but I don't get it, I didn't do anything to you." Sanji says with a frown. In all honesty this is why he'd opened the door even though he suspected that it contained Kaku. He needs to know why someone hated him enough to do this to him.

"You don't deserve Zoro!" Kaku yells at him.

"Yeah, you said that before. If this is just jealousy then why are you angry at me? It's not like Zoro or I chose each other, it's just worked out well." He shrugs. Really it was a matter of luck. It wasn't as if there were better countries to be married to. They were already close to Alabaster and while the only other country with the military prowess to help them was Elbaf and Sanji had nothing against giants, not that he'd ever seen one mind you, the idea of being romantically involved with something that could fit him in their mouth was terrifying. A match with any other country and ruling family wouldn't have been useful enough to be worth the price of Sanji's freedom to fall in love and marry someone of his own choosing. So it was the heir to Shimotsuki or no one. Before anything else it had been lucky that their sexualities lined up as well as they did. Both of them seem to be interested in men at least and Sanji knows that Zoro has had experience with more than one gender under his belt, so to speak, and Sanji appreciated beauty in all forms. They could have perhaps both gritted their teeth and consummated their marriage just for the sake of being able to say that they had done and it was legal enough for any dissenters to lose their claim that it was a farce. Heirs of their own weren't any problem with the aid of magic so in all likelihood they could have passed their lives in a mutual agreement of aiding their own countries and nothing more. After the resentment of having to be married to someone he didn't love at the time wore off it was good that he had liked Zoro, even if he's unendingly irritating, but to actually fall in love with the man was unbelievably fortunate.

Being in love with Zoro was hardly something that Sanji chose to do. Sure he's made an active effort to push things further with Zoro and not fuck up but he has no control over his feelings. You can't choose to fall in love with someone. He didn't do this on purpose.

"He should never have been bartered off to you, it's not real love, I'm the one who loves him! You barely know him!" Kaku argues furiously.

"Well, I can agree that I don't know as much of his life as you, I've never even met his family. That doesn't mean that we're not in love. I can see that you're bitter about him not loving you but again that's not my fault." Sanji shrugs. His calmness seems to only enrage Kaku further and Sanji doesn't regret that one bit.

"I love him! If you hadn't come along I would have had more time and it would have been me!" Kaku insists and in that moment Sanji pities him ever so slightly.

"I doubt it, you've known Zoro for years. If anything was going to happen between the two of you it would have happened by now and the fact that he's about as interested in you as a horse in a nice steak also isn't my fault." Sanji reasons.

"You don't know what you're talking about you... you... whore!" Kaku spits at him. He literally spits, a gob of it splashing on the floor only a foot short of Sanji's bare feet. Sanji grits his teeth, that's a huge insult and usually he'd rearrange someone's face for that level of disrespect but he's not keen to get into Kaku's range to do it.

"Fuck you. Zoro won't even say your name, he loathes you. You betrayed him. I get that you're jealous and clearly ruthless, but you said that 'they' promised Zoro to you if you killed me. Who are they?" Sanji presses him and Kaku's jaw snaps shut and his eyes narrow.

"I'm not telling you anything." He growls.

"Ah, so there is something to tell. Well, we'll find out sooner or later." Sanji smirks and Kaku looks a little startled, he's too angry to be smart right now and Sanji is perfectly happy to exploit that. He doesn't know enough to make use of it though, he should really come back with the others. He knows that he can enrage the guy enough to make him crack under questioning and he's got a good feeling that Nami and Robin are smart and keen eyed enough to work anything out.

Still, this worthless scumbag tried to kill him so Sanji isn't inclined to be gentle with his feelings.

"Well, it's late. I'm going back to bed. I expect that Zoro is missing me there." Sanji says with a stretch and smiles at Kaku. His enraged screech reaches even though the thick wood of the door when Sanji closes it on him and slams the bolt home.

After a little more wandering through the castle he comes back to the room that he was sleeping in and sees that Zoro is still out cold. Sanji slides back in against his side and Zoro tugs him close without even really waking up. Yeah, Sanji didn't choose to fall in love with Zoro but he can't deny that he is.

  

The third time that Sanji wakes up after his week long state of unconsciousness is gentle at first. He can hear Zoro talking next to him, sitting up in their bed. Sanji only has time to open his eyes and yawn before there is a huge pile of bodies suddenly falling on top of him and lots of shouting.

“You’re AWAKE! You’re OKAY!” Usopp yells in his ear, his face and long nose smushed against Sanji’s. Then it’s Luffy’s arms around his middle and Franky kneeling next to him sobbing and denying it, even Johnny and Yoskau are piled on his legs and tearing up.

“He’s not going to be okay if you crush him!” Zoro barks and Luffy loosens his grip and sits up on Sanji’s legs and beams down at him with a smile as bright as sunshine. Franky and Usopp stay where they are and Nami and Robin are on Zoro’s half of the bed where his legs would have been if he wasn’t already sitting up.

“Calm down.” Sanji grumbles, sitting up and failing to dislodge Usopp. His long nosed nakama just shifts his grip to being wrapped around Sanji’s middle.

“We were starting to get worried that you wouldn’t make it.” Nami says.

 

“The little- doctor said he didn’t think that you’d make it.” Luffy tells him.

 

“The what?” Sanji asks, turning to look at Zoro in confusion.

 

“Tanuki.” Zoro says repeating the word slowly.

“It’s a… you know what, never mind. He’s a-.” Zoro tells him, giving him another word in Tsukian that Sanji doesn't understand.

Great, he still has no idea what Zoro is talking about but whatever it is he’s sure that he’ll work it out later.

"How do you feel, Sanji?" Robin asks him.

"I feel fine, really. Usopp let me go." Sanji sighs, trying to pry the other man's hands off of his midsection with no success.

"You look a lot better." Nami agrees with a pleasant nod.

"Why thank you Nami!" He flutters. If a beautiful lady things that he looks good then he absolutely must.

"Yeah, you don't look like shit so much now." Zoro adds and pokes Sanji in the forehead.

Sanji bats his hand away and glares at Zoro.

"Stupid moss prince." Sanji snaps at him in Baratian and Zoro bursts out laughing.

"Since when do you insult me in your own language?" Zoro asks him back in Baratian as well.

"When I fucking feel like it." Sanji responds, switching back.

"Speaking of not being dead, what's going to happen to Kaku? You and Zeff didn't answer me before." Sanji asks, looking at Zoro. At least he thinks that they didn't, his first memories of waking up are a little hazy now.

Everyone in the room reacts differently but the overwhelming emotion is anger. Not at him of course, but at Kaku.

"I know that he's alive, I saw him last night." Sanji adds.

"YOU WHAT?" Zoro yells at him, making Sanji wince. That was far too close to his ear.

"Calm the fuck down, I don't know my way around the place and happened to find the room. He's really pissed off. He was a lot more pissed off after I left." Sanji grins. Zoro's face flicks from shock to rage and back and forth a few times, he can't seem to decide where to settle.

"Sanji! Don't be an idiot!" Franky snaps at him, smacking him in the head with one of his large hands. Franky seemingly knows how he feels about it.

"Hey!" Sanji protests.

"The guy nearly killed you and you go off and find him, on your own, in the night and you didn't think that was a bad idea?!" Franky shouts at him.

"It was fine. He was chained up and it's not like I went in there." Sanji shrugs, though he's acting a lot cooler on the outside than he actually feels. It didn't seem like a particularly dumb thing to do at the time, he didn't get close to the guy after all, but Franky's making him feel bad about it. He feels a hundred times worse when he looks back to Zoro and sees that his husband has discarded shock and rage as possible things that he's feeling and instead he looks... hurt. Sanji doesn't think that it's the kind of hurt that suggests that Sanji betrayed him or anything, no this looks more like the very idea of Sanji being anywhere NEAR Kaku hurts him.

"He's definitely in on this with other people, I'm sure we can find out why he did this. Aside from wanting to be the one married to Zoro I mean." Sanji says, turning his attention to Nami and Robin, because he can't look at Zoro's hurt face.

“I do intend on finding out just who those people are, no matter what I have to do to get him to talk.” Robin says with a nod.

“Kureha won’t let us persuade him to talk under her roof. Some doctor patient thing. She fixed his bones, she doesn’t want us breaking anything else.” Nami points out.

“You can put someone through agony without even touching them, I’m fairly sure that you found that out last night Sanji.” Robin smiles darkly.

“Oh yeah, he’s dumber when he’s around me too. I can get him angry enough for you to get in his head.” Sanji suggests and Robin smiles deviously while Nami looks like a cat that got the cream. Sanji loves these wonderful ladies and their brilliant minds and he’s so happy that they’re nakama.

“Zoro?” Luffy asks seriously and Sanji looks around to see the captain watching Zoro seriously. Zoro has his eyes shut and it running the fingers of one hand over his forehead like he’s starting to get a really bad headache.

“I don’t like this. I’d be happier if no one talked to that scum. But… if he is working with someone else then I can’t let my feelings get in the way. Someone else that he’s working with might attack any of us and I’m not going to let that happen again. It shouldn’t have happened this time, I should have listened to Ace sooner I-” Zoro shakes his head and again he looks pained.

“Ace? I don’t understand.” Sanji tells him. That’s one of the first phrases that they both learnt and they still use it often, although usually for a word rather than a statement.

“He was trying to tell me that… he was a traitor. I stood there defending him when you two had gone to the river and if I’d just listened then-” Zoro’s self abusive tirade is cut off when Sanji puts his hand over Zoro’s mouth.

“Shut up dumbass.” he tells him in Baratian. He can see the guilt on Zoro’s face as plain as day and Sanji knows a hopeless battle when he sees it. He’s never going to be able to talk Zoro out of that guilt, either Zoro will forgive himself or he won’t, there’s nothing Sanji can do about it. He doesn’t have to tolerate Zoro saying it though.

“Am I interrupting a meeting or something?”

Sanji turns around and sees his old man in the doorway, a bushy eyebrow arched at at them. Zoro scrambles off of the bed and bows deeply and hastily in a way that Sanji has almost never seen him do. Guilt again then, huh? He wonders what Zeff said to Zoro when he first got here and saw his son near death. Did he blame Zoro or did Zoro just blame himself? The other knights scramble to do the same but Zeff holds up a hand and shakes his head.

“Enough with all of this bowing shit. I need to talk to you two about that knight of Zoro’s.” Zeff says and Zoro flinches. Yeah, that’s guilt alright.

“Of course.” Zoro says with a nod as Johnny and Yosaku make a hasty exit. Zoro’s nakama are going to stick around for moral support but the pair of them are wise to get out of Zeff’s range. Not that there really is such a thing.

“You asked me about his execution. Well, I don’t want to execute him.” Zeff says.

“WHAT?!” Zoro and Sanji cry out in horror as one.

“Your highness, you can’t be serious.” Robin says with wide eyed disbelief.

Usopp is quietly translating and there’s a time delay before everyone else on the bed reacts in anger and horror.

“I want you to take him back to your country. I want you to find out who else was involved and then I want you to execute him.” Zeff tells them and Sanji relaxes a little but he can still feel Zoro bristling with rage. Sure Zoro wants to find out who was involved but the idea of spending weeks in the presence of Kaku might be more than he can bear.

“He damn near cut your head off with that knife. Do the same to him. Behead him.” his old man says. Sanji can hear Zoro grinding his teeth.

“With GREAT DISRESPECT your highness, you should THINK AGAIN your MORONIC DECISION!” Zoro grits out.

“Tone, Zoro. Tone.” Sanji sighs.

“In our culture a beheading is a quick death, it’s the fastest way of execution. Not really fitting for a crime like this.” Robin says more calmly.

“Like giving a thief who caused starvation a trial by water.” Sanji says with a displeased scowl.

“A what?” Zoro says in confusion.

“If someone is accused of a semi serious crime but there’s not enough evidence to prove it then they’re cuffed up and thrown in a whirlpool, if the ocean spits them out or they swim out then they were innocent, if they drown then they weren’t. It’s not really done anymore but it is sometimes it is.” Usopp explains.

“So find a way to make it slow, painful and dishonourable. Whatever that means for you.” Zeff tells them firmly.

“A blunted weapon could do that, taking a long time between strokes I suppose.” Robin considers as Usopp continues quietly translating.

“With his own sword. Blunt it in front of him until it’s got no edge at all, like a child’s training sword. And do it slowly. I’ll do it too.” Zoro growls, not bothering with Baratian this time. Either he’s too angry to remember all of the words or he knows that he’ll fuck up what he means to say. Robin translates for him quickly and clearly.

Zeff smiles and it’s the same smile that Sanji remembers directed as their enemies when Sanji was a kid, they didn’t call him red leg Zeff for nothing.

“And- his body out to-” Nami says, her voice too distorted by speed, anger and Sanji’s lack of revenge specific vocabulary to parse.

“And Nami suggests displaying his body publicly until it rots.” Robin adds pleasantly.

Sanji reels in shock, these ideas would have never occurred to him and they seem a little… over the top. He’s going to die, isn’t that enough? But then he considers how merciful he would be if someone tried to kill Zoro, or any of his nakama. No, he wouldn’t have mercy then. Franky would probably tell him that he doesn’t value his own life enough.

“Perfect. Tell him today and offer to make it not so bad if he cooperates. But even if he does then don’t change it, just let him think that you will.” his old man suggests casually.

Sanji hasn’t ever seen his father like this, even when he was a kid after Sanji’s mother died. Maybe Zeff was more concerned with making sure that his son was okay, he remembers how much the old man watched him back then. Besides, there hadn’t been any obvious culprit back then.

On that note, he has something else to discuss. He squirms out from under his nakama and gets out of bed, making his way towards the old geezer. Zeff watches him carefully, Sanji really wishes that people would stop looking at him like he’s made of spun glass, so what if he still gets a little light headed sometimes? That’s his problem, not theirs.

“Talking of executions,” he says quietly, “what about Cavendish and Absalom?”

“I let Cavendish go, he wasn’t doing anything more than protecting his dumbass brother. And hating your angry ass isn’t a crime either.” the old man tells him.

“Please. Stop. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.” Sanji says flatly, sarcasm dripping off of his every word.

“Brat, sometimes you’re as pleasant as a pinecone in the asshole.” Zeff snorts.

“Fuck off already, when are you going back to Baratie?!” he snarls at his old man. He’s tempted to try to kick him but that’d be a bad idea right now.

“Today. But regardless of that Absalom does know something. Obviously he wasn’t involved back then but it looks like he’s been in contact with people who were involved. It seems like traitors are cropping up everywhere these days.” Zeff says darkly and Sanji’s heart sinks.

“Get your ass safely to that stupid country, no more assassinations and no more dragons.” Zeff tells him and bangs his pegleg into the top of Sanji’s head. Sanji shoves him back angrily and sends Zeff a kick that he easily deflects.

“You heard about the dragon then?” Sanji asks after a moment.

“A thing like that washes down Dragon’s Pass with bootmarks and a sword hole in its mouth, I figured that you idiots were behind it. Have a safe and boring journey, you hear me?” His old man orders him.

“Trust me, boring sounds pretty good right about now.” Sanji agrees with a nod.

****  
  
  
  


Sanji looks at himself in the mirror, tilting his head this way and that. He’s not sure whether this counts as a scar or a burn. Obviously it’s a scar in the sense that it is never ever going to go away but it’s also a burn. A lot of what happened to him after kicking Kaku into the trees with his diable jambe is hazy. He remembers leaning against Franky, he remembers Usopp’s terrified expression and Zoro’s tight and fake smile. Zoro had been trying to reassure him, to keep him calm but Sanji knows that Zoro was as scared as anyone, probably more so than Sanji himself. He remembers being on a horse but not how he got there, he vaguely recalls the movement of it and Zoro’s voice in his ear. One thing he remembers with absolute clarity is the burn.

Ace had heated his knife up and Sanji’s attention had snapped to it, another knife near his neck felt like all kinds of bad idea. The heat radiating from it make him want to kick the man away and escape. He would have if he didn’t have Zoro’s warm and sturdy hands on his face and his soothing voice. He remembers the knife penetrating under his skin and scalding parts that no one was ever meant to touch. It hurt more than the cut to his throat, it hurt more than almost anything Sanji had ever felt before. It only hurt for a second though, blinding flashes of pain followed by numbness as the nerves there died. He felt Ace pinch his throat together and burn it shut. It was excruciating and then just hot. It was Zoro’s voice and hands that kept him still and helped him grit his teeth and muscle through it.

He runs his fingers over it. The skin is unnaturally slick and smooth, it doesn’t feel like skin at all. It’s jagged where Ace’s fingers were and how it was unevenly pinched together. He’s going to have this for life and he hates it. It’s angry and red and it shows up on his pale skin like a light in the darkness, it’s impossible to miss.

He didn’t even last a whole week before he failed to protect himself and nearly got killed. Zoro’s people value strength, so what are they going to think of him? He’s some pampered little Prince that never left his country before, who couldn’t hack the journey and nearly died. Without Zoro by his side he failed to look out for himself. He dropped his guard, he didn’t react fast enough and he hadn’t even been wearing armour. If he had some kind of neck protection then Kaku might not have been able to do this to him. No one will ever respect him and Zoro is going to have to spend the entire time defending his reputation. Zoro sleeps light with his swords in reach and all of the Tsukian formalwear was armour, Sanji won’t fit in at all.

What on earth are Zoro’s parents going to think of him? No doubt Mihawk will realise that he made a mistake, a stupid bargain or he’ll see Sanji as just a burden that he had to pay. He had been worried about his language skills showing him up but this is way worse, if it was just his speech then he could shut his mouth but he can’t hide this unless he takes up an unhealthy obsession with scarves. He sees Zoro come closer in the mirror behind him, Sanji had come in here to change. His delay of their journey meant that the caravan of their things had caught up with them, his old man passed them and told them where to go. Sanji now has access to the rest of his wardrobe and he’s grateful for it.

“Hey.” Zoro greets him. Sanji pulls the collar of his shirt up around his neck and he takes his time buttoning the rest of it.

“Hi.” He responds, his voice sounding duller than he meant it to.

“Are you okay?” Zoro asks, his brow furrowing and he comes closer, touching his hand to Sanji’s forehead. He’s been having a mild fever off and on as his body fights the infection that he picked up, yet another thing he was too weak to resist on his own.

“I’m fine, did you want something?” He asks, reluctantly folding the collar of his shirt back down.

“Does it hurt? You looked like it hurt.” Zoro asks him with wide and worried eyes. Great, now even Zoro is worrying after him.

“I’m fine.” he confirms.

“You don’t look fine.” Zoro responds. Sanji narrows his eyes at Zoro and the man seems to reconsider what he said.

“...you know what I meant.” he says defensively.

“You’re bad at this.” Sanji snorts and Zoro scowls, looking none too pleased. He shakes it off though and gets back to the previous topic. Sanji often likes Zoro’s steadfast determination about things, but not when it’s determination to find things out that Sanji doesn’t want him to.

“Do you want to talk about it?” his husband asks him.

“I don’t need to talk about it. I’m fine.” Sanji groans and moves towards the door.

“So there is something. And your Tsukian is better than just saying ‘I’m fine’, people who are fine don’t keep saying it.” Zoro says and Sanji stops in the doorway. Irritation prickles under his skin and the numbness at the edge of his neck needles at him.

“You really want to have this conversation?” Sanji asks, his hands clenching tight.

“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.” Zoro tells him flatly.

“Fine.” Sanji grits out and turns around.

“Stop me if I miss anything.” He tells Zoro.

“Sanji, what’s wrong? Well, Zoro, I wish that I hadn’t had my throat cut and that I wasn’t still sick. Oh Sanji, there’s nothing that you can do about that, you’re doing fine. Sorry Zoro but that doesn’t fix the giant mark on my neck telling everyone that I let my guard down and nearly died. It doesn’t fix that I’m going to have to go through Shimotsuki with the evidence of that weakness on me for life!” He snarls, switching his voice back and forth slightly.

Zoro opens his mouth to barge in, his face furious.

“Sanji, you’re not weak, how dare you think that? I’ll personally stab anyone who says that!” Sanji says louder, talking over the same words that Zoro had started to say.

“Yeah, so no one is going to call me weak around you. Doesn’t mean that they won’t think it. Doesn’t mean that they won’t say it when you’re not around. Doesn’t mean that they won’t treat me like that. And there’s nothing you or I can do about it, so this is a pointless conversation.” Sanji tells him darkly.

“I’m going, I need to get something to eat.” Sanji mutters, turning his back and leaving the room.

“I don’t think you’re weak. I think you’re strong.” Zoro tells him quietly.

Sanji turns around on the spot and his instinct is to call Zoro a liar or an idiot. Sanji nearly died for his mistake and he put Zoro through a storm of pain for it, what kind of person thinks that’s strength?!

...someone who loves him.

Sanji closes his eyes and tries to calm himself. He’s being stupid now, Zoro doesn’t think less of him, he knows that. It’s just hard not to feel like everything is going wrong. For all of Zoro’s many flaws Sanji can’t say that being disloyal or patronising are amongst them. If Zoro thought that Sanji was weak he’s sure that Zoro would just outright tell him and then do his best to shove that weakness out of him. Sanji’s mind flicks to the panic that gripped him before after that nightmare, the one that he embarrassingly had in front of Zoro. Only it wasn’t embarrassing because Zoro just considered it the result of an injury, not a weakness at all. Sanji’s not sure if Zoro’s more charitable with Sanji’s weaknesses or if maybe he’s too rough on himself.

He shoves that stupid thought aside and shakes his head.

“Plenty of people aren’t gonna like you. Some people are gonna hate you. Your own cousins don’t like you.” Zoro points out.

“Gee, thanks.” Sanji grumbles.

“People are gonna think that you’re weak too. You’re Baratian, you don’t look anywhere near as strong as you are and you dress like you’ve never seen a fight in your life.” Zoro says with a shrug.

“This is supposed to make me feel better?” Sanji demands.

“Yeah, having people underestimate you is good. That bastard certainly didn’t expect you to fight back and nearly put your foot through his chest after he attacked you.” he points out and Sanji notes that Zoro still isn’t saying Kaku’s name.

“People will underestimate you but no one’s gonna do it twice. And you’re gonna be just as smug as you were this time.” He adds, his hand coming around Sanji’s fading mark.

“And when you grind them into the dirt, I wanna watch.” Zoro growls, his smile is wide and sharp and heat races down Sanji’s spine and makes his breath catch in his chest.

“So get lots of these and people are gonna stop underestimating you and then no one will think you’re weak again. And then you can be smug about that.” Zoro adds, laughing at the end. His thumb is still tracing over the waves on Sanji’s wrist.

“Are you saying that my default state is smug?” Sanji asks because his mind has to think about something other than that fact that Zoro is very close and somehow has pinged at least half of Sanji’s ‘yes please!’ switches in his libido.

“Yeah. So are you going to come with me and be smug and eat breakfast or are you gonna stay in here all day?” Zoro asks, letting Sanji go and walking off. Zoro turns as he leaves, giving Sanji a challenging look as he goes.

Sanji stands still for a moment. How the fuck did Zoro just do that? He was in a spiral of anger and hate and now he’s… not. He’s kind of looking forward to being in Shimotsuki right now and instead of thinking about the scar on his neck he’s thinking about getting his hands on Zoro’s body instead.

How does Zoro suddenly know how he works so well?

****  
  


It's a stroke of luck or perhaps just excellent planning that the languages that Sanji's doctors speak are both Baratian and Tsukian, although Sanji would hesitate to call the dialect spoken in Drum true Baratian. Drum and Baratie used to share a common language due to heavy trade, they were firm allies and ships were forever crossing the narrow waters at the edge of the mountain range, ferrying goods back and forth. That had all stopped when Sanji's grandparents were in power though, apparently the King of Drum had gone completely mad and eaten half of his court as well as his own children. That kind of thing tends to put a damper on international relations. The end result is that what the people of Drum speak is understandable to Sanji about 95% of the time but then they come out with something that has Sanji scratching his head in confusion. Their sentence structure is slightly off too and Zoro can't even cope with speaking to either of Sanji's doctors in Baratian, his short attempts to lead to fractured and barked out sentences that make everyone wince. Zoro is good enough at Baratian now to hear when he's doing it badly.

Sanji was lucky in the first place to get two doctors that speak both languages, or close enough at any rate. His Tsukian is still intelligible to a lesser or greater extent when he's feeling weak or lightheaded, but if it gets bad he reverts right back to Baratian. A further stroke of luck is that apparently not only are the two doctors caring for Sanji the very best in the country but they two of very few in the country as well. Apparently eating most of the medical professionals also makes it hard for doctors to find people to train them. The lady doctor, Kureha, was actually around at the time that it all happened although she insists that she looks far too young for that to be true. As much as Sanji doesn't want to think ill of a lady he can't help but quietly think that she looks just old enough to have been around back then, she just doesn't seem to know it.

The younger doctor, whose name is Chopper, is just a kid and actually more noticeably isn't human. Apparently he used to just be a regular animal but managed to get his little hooves on a devil's fruit that was some kind of man fruit. Evidently it gave Chopper the traits of a man, speech, intelligence and so on. He's got a gifted mind and a pretty sweet and shy personality and Sanji quite likes him. Chopper started liking him too after Sanji got over his initial 'emergency rations!' reaction and chased him around the castle until he almost passed out. Zoro shouted at him for it but Luffy quietly told Sanji that he'd tried to eat Chopper too.

"What kind of animal are you?" He asks Chopper curiously as the little doctor flicks air bubbles to the top of the syringe that he has in his hooves. Chopper bears a resemblance to the deer in the forests of Baratie, at least with his coat, feet and little tail, but he's still too fuzzy and the antlers on his head aren't quite right.

"I'm a-" Chopper answers.

"Can you say that again slower? I don't know that word." Sanji asks him as Chopper depresses the plunger on the syringe and clears the air and some of the fluid in it out.

"Reindeer." Chopper repeats and finds a vein in Sanji's arm. Sanji looks away, it's not that he's scared of needles, far from it. It's just that lately he's not had a great experience of sharp things being pressed into his skin and if he sees the needle coming he tenses up and then it actually does hurt a little.

"How long until this stuff makes me better? I keep running a fever. I know it's bad when I make Zoro too hot when he's in bed with me, Drum is colder than Baratie and Zoro used to bitch about how cold Baratie was. If I'm warm enough to overheat him then that says something." Sanji asks unhappily. Chopper pulls out the needle and presses a cotton ball to the site of the puncture. Sanji takes over and holds it down.

"Well, with the antibiotics that you're on I'd say it's three weeks to get your system clear. But in your case your body was weakened from nearly dying and having most of your own blood lost, so it could be double that until you're free of the infection." The little doctor tells him as he gathers up his equipment.

"I don't have that long though. I need to get going to Shimotsuki, I'm going to be late enough as is!" Sanji protests. They've easily burned through any lead that Nami's far smarter route would have garnered them.

"You're not fit to travel yet. I'd maybe give you three weeks, two at the earliest before you'd be fit to travel provided that you took it light and easy and adhered to your treatment." Chopper says with a shake of his head.

"But I need to go!" Sanji argues.

"You're not going anywhere! I didn't spend all of my time looking after you so that you could die! Kureha didn't spend all her time overseeing you and looking for spells to help you for you to die! And Zoro didn't agree to give up three years from his lifespan to help you heal just so you could throw it all away because you can’t listen!" Chopper shouts at him.

Silence falls between the two of them and Sanji's mind whirrs.

"Zoro did what?" He asks slowly.

"Uhh... aaaah... I... uhm. Nothing?" the little furry doctor lies in a high pitched voice. Usopp could do a better job.

"Unless you WANT me to cut you up and put you on the dinner menu I suggest you start talking!" Sanji snarls, catching the little doctor by his chest fur. He wouldn't really do that but the kid doesn't need to know that.

"It was a spell! It helped you heal! It boosted the ability of your body to make more of it's own blood at a rate that'd take years, three to be precise! But you can't get that from nowhere so Zoro... Zoro agreed to take that much off of his lifespan. Well... he offered far more than that but three was all that Kureha could use, more than that would have actually hurt you PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!" Chopper wails.

Sanji grits his teeth. He lets Chopper go and gently dusts off his fur.

"I'm not going to eat you. Thank you Chopper. I'm going to go for a walk." He tells the doctor sweetly.

Sanji stands up and walks out of the room, his hand still on the cotton ball on his arm. He walks through the castle on light feet. He's at least back to wearing his own clothes again instead of just pyjamas, though thanks to their stupid trip he's still down to about three every day shirts so he's not got a lot of wardrobe choice. What he does have is his nice white boots again, the ones with the exceedingly sturdy soles to them that he had introduced Kaku to before. They'll come in useful.

It doesn't take him long to track down his beloved husband. The man is standing there talking to Ace alone, and Zoro has his back to Sanji. The prince glances around at the sound of someone entering the room, a quick and almost subconscious thing, but when he sees that it's just Sanji he returns his gaze to Ace without even breaking the conversation. Sanji strolls calmly up to Zoro.

He pauses behind him and takes in a deep breath.

"THREE YEARS?!" He bellows as he winds back his leg and kicks Zoro in the side hard enough to send him flying into the nearby wall with a sizeable slam. Sanji is at least getting stronger.

"Sanji!" Zoro yells, getting to his feet. Sanji is having none of that.

"You exchanged three years off of your life to try to help me and you weren't even sure that it would WORK?!" He yells at him angrily.

"Yes! And I'd do it again!" Zoro retorts, getting to his feet, one hand going to his swords in case Sanji wants to take this fight further.  Sanji does.

"You can't just gamble with shit like that Zoro, it's your life!" He shouts, the fury building in him. He lashes out again with a kick, if Zoro thinks so little of his own life then Sanji's gonna make him work to keep it. Zoro draws his swords and blocks Sanji's kick. The shock of it reverberates up Sanji's leg. Good, he needs a real fight.

"Yeah, it's MY life! I can do what I want with it!" Zoro counters and shoves Sanji back swiping the blades in a cross that comes nowhere near Sanji. The fucker is still holding back on him.

"And what am I supposed to do when you croak three years sooner than you should? I'm gonna be left alone!" Sanji argues jumping for Zoro and landing on his raised blade instead of his husband's face.

"When I what?" The idiot frowns, confused by Sanji's turns of phrase.

"Uh, I'm gonna go..." Ace says slowly, backing away from the two arguing princes.

"Don't you DARE! I need to talk to you too!" Sanji shouts at him, pointing a threatening finger at Ace. The flame wielder doesn't look enthused about the idea of a conversation with Sanji, especially given how he and Zoro are settling their differences right now.

"So I gave up three years of my life for a chance to give you all of yours back, I'd do it again if I had to! What was I supposed to do if you didn't come back to me, huh?" Zoro challenges, pointing his blade right at Sanji to emphasise his point.

"Zeff wouldn't kill you, he doesn't want a war. You would have been fine, Shimotsuki would have been fine. That's not worth three years!" He argues furiously.

"I didn't give a SHIT about that then, I wanted YOU back! I... I needed you back. I can't do this without you." Zoro tells him softly and lets his swords fall to his sides, his hands clutching them hard enough that the blades are shaking slightly. Sanji pauses and lowers his leg a little.

"Can't do what?" he asks.

"Live." Zoro answers in the quietest voice that Sanji has ever heard him talk in. He says it in Baratian too, his inflection tells Sanji that he didn't mean his existence or his presence in the world, he's not talking about being a prince. He's talking about just being alive, as if he can't live without Sanji around. Sanji's heart aches. He drops his stance immediately, back to two feet on the floor.

"Zoro..." He breathes in something between horror and awe. He knows that people would kill for him, but he's never had anyone tell them that their life wouldn't be worth living without him in it. Sure Zeff feels the same, Sanji knows that, but he's never said it, not like this. Zoro's not a man for huge gestures or dramatic declarations and Sanji can't think of one much bigger than this. Zoro really means this.

"I won't apologise." Zoro says defiantly and Sanji doesn't want to make him now.

"Just... don't be so reckless. I don't want to be without you either." He tells him, uneasy about being this candid. Their only blessing is that their Baratian is incomprehensible to their captive audience. On that note he really does need to speak to Ace.

"I needed to talk to you." He says with a sigh, looking at the one man in Zoro's company who isn't a knight.

"I'm not sure I'm a fan of how you talk." Ace tells him with a raised eyebrow.

"Nah, I'm not going to kick you." Sanji says with a shake of his head. Sanji doesn't know if it's the movement that disorientates him or if it's the fight catching up to him but he wavers unsteadily on the spot and only just catches himself.

"Sanji, you should-" Zoro starts to tell him.

"Shut your noise hole, I'm fine." Sanji snaps and throws the cotton ball that was stuck to his arm right in Zoro's face. He returns his attention to Ace.

"You saved my life. Kureha and Chopper got me well again but I wouldn't have made the trip here if I was still bleeding out. I owe you for this." He tells Ace seriously, his hand coming up to the burn on the side of his throat. The skin still feels slick and gross. Sanji is still ashamed of it, it's a mark of his weakness but also a reminder of his debt to Ace.

"It's not a debt that I can hope to fully repay without saving your life in return, but if there is every anything that you need, anything at all then ask me and I'll do everything in my power to give it to you. Zeff would do the same if it's something that he can give you but I can't. I and the rest of Baratie are forever grateful for what you did." He says with as much respect as he can force into his voice. From the slight confusion that flickers over Ace's face for moments as Sanji speaks he guesses that his sentence structure or his word choices aren't quite right but from the embarrassed body language he can tell that Ace gets his meaning.

"I didn't do it to put you in my debt. Anyone would have done the same if they could." Ace mutters, addressing Sanji's boots instead of his face.

"Clearly not everyone." Sanji snorts, his fingers still running over that awful scar. He drops his hand.

"Yeah well, you shouldn't take traitors into account." The man tells him, tugging at his hat and pulling it over his eyes a little. He reminds Sanji of Luffy, the two brothers are awfully similar.

"Well, I still owe you. Whenever you need to call that in then I'll do whatever I can. Just let me know." Sanji reiterates.

"Thank you. Hopefully I'll never need to." Ace nods, accepting Sanji's offer.

"Here's hoping." Sanji agrees. He doesn't want Ace's life to be in danger like Sanji's own was.

"I need to go find Luffy. I'll see the two of you later." Ace tells them with a nod and leaves. Sanji isn't sure if that's entirely true or if Ace is just excusing himself out of awkwardness.

“What were you doing before you stormed down here and kicked me anyway?” Zoro asks a few moments after Ace scuttles away.

“Chopper was sticking needles in me.” Sanji mutters unhappily and rubs at his arm unhappily. He feels like a pincushion these days.

“You should go back to that, come on.” Zoro sighs and Sanji wants to see if Zoro is so sensible when he’s the one sick or injured.

****  
  


The next few days pass like that, with Sanji being banned from anything fun, including amusing himself with Zoro’s body, and frankly Sanji is bored out of his mind. Sanji stands in the room that houses most of their things and idly wonders what kind of clothes he's going to be able to get when he's in Shimotsuki. As a prince he can just get some made if he doesn't find any that he likes, but he would rather at least take in some Tsukian fashion instead of just demanding re-makes of his now mostly ruined wardrobe. He would jokingly accuse Zoro of having planned this whole thing just to get him out of his clothes but Zoro would probably make that sad and guilty face that he keeps making. Apparently jokes about Sanji nearly dying don't amuse Zoro, they just make him feel bad. Zoro's a dumbass though, it's not his fault at all. If it was Sanji would have told him so.

He packs his remaining shirts into a bag and then starts onto the trousers that he's not currently wearing, his sleepwear and the other miscellaneous things that he had brought with him. As he puts his books and his ink into the bag he realises that his week of unconsciousness and the few days afterwards when he was in and out of consciousness a lot are the first times that he's not written in his journals ever since he started them. Even when he was sick he'd write something. He does remember that one time when he was a kid and had a terribly bad fever he wrote 'I am a fish' over and over again.

Thankfully he doesn't get sick that often but nearly dying is a good excuse. He'd taken nine pages, one for each day when he'd failed to write on when he was nearly dead and then not with it enough to write. Across them he had written 'THAT TIME WHEN I NEARLY DIED' and considers that to be that.

He packs his cooking set in afterwards, his little wrap of spices and knives. He's one knife short now and it had been his really nice long meat knife too. Sanji hadn't intended on being the meat that it was used on and he's pretty sure that his complaints that no one thought to get it for him won't go down well with anyone and so he's kept them to himself. He might be sick and injured but he's pretty sure that his nakama would kick his ass for whining about his knives.

He closes up his bags and stands up with them. With the two slung over his shoulder he walks out of his temporary bedroom and off down the stairs and down the hallway. He happens to run into Nami near the kitchen, that's an area he's tried to avoid as well as he's been banned from cooking for the meantime. Apparently sudden changes in temperature could cause his blood pressure to blah, blah, blah, it's bullshit. He'd be fine cooking, he's done it all of his life.

"Sanji, why do you have bags?" Nami asks him, pausing on a step lower than him.

"Oh. I'm done, I'm all packed." He tells her easily.

"You're done? Done having your things in the room?" Nami asks with a frown.

"No, I'm done with being here. We're leaving." He answers with a smile and goes to walk past her.

"Wait, I don't think I understood you. Say that again." she says, catching him by the shoulder. Sanji repeats himself slowly, his accent is still pretty weak by Tsukian standards and occasionally the rest of his Tsukian nakama get confused by his occasional word. Usually they seem to be able to work it out from context though. Maybe it's especially bad right now.

"That's what I thought you said." Nami mutters unhappily.

"Oh, good. Excuse me then, my flower." He smiles and continues on his way.

"ZORO SANJI IS- AGAIN!" Sanji doesn't know what word it was that Nami was just shouting about him but he's pretty sure that it doesn't bode well for him. Hm, maybe if he can get far enough away then Zoro will be lost as he tries to catch up to him.

Sanji hears some shouting and footsteps in the hall behind him. Hm, apparently not. He breaks into a mild jog, holding his bags tight on his shoulder.

"Sanji, stop!" Zoro shouts, and catches up to him almost immediately after speaking. Damn, Sanji should have just run.

"Oh, Zoro." Sanji smiles uneasily. Zoro is looking at him like he's going to pass out or throw up or something.

"I was going to find you in a bit after I was done with this." He tells him.

"Done with... what?" his husband asks, speaking slowly. Zoro's eyes are sharp and his body is broadcasting just how much he's on high alert.

"With packing everything up to go." Sanji responds, jostling the saddle bags on his shoulders. He's going to find Seafoam and get his bags secured and then he's going to get everyone else to do the same.

"You're not going anywhere." the man tells him and makes a grab for Sanji's bags.

Sanji wasn't born yesterday though, he knew that Zoro would do that and so he's already dodging by the time Zoro starts to move.

"We ARE going! I'm packed, I say we're going, so we're going!" He shouts, ducking a swipe from Zoro's arm and then dashing off down the corridor.

"YOU'RE STAYING RIGHT HERE!" Zoro shouts as he sprints after him. Zoro's gaining on him. Shit. Well, Sanji is faster and if he has to push himself to make the point then he will!

He breaks ahead of Zoro, pushing the distance between them apart as he outstrips Zoro in speed. He can't run forever like this and even when he's at full health he can't do it for a long period of time. All he needs to do though is to get far enough away from Zoro so that he can lose the other man. Unfortunately he hadn't accounted for how quickly his speed would run out or how likely it was that Zoro would just lunge for him.

Zoro does just that. Sanji's bags skid to the ground as Zoro tackles him and rolls in the air so that it's Zoro who hits the ground, not Sanji.

"Let me go you ape!" Sanji demands angrily, shoving himself up out of Zoro's arms.

"What?" Zoro questions, looking at him in confusion.

Ah. Zoro doesn't know the word for ape. Well, that's fine but Sanji hardly feels like giving him a language lesson.

Nami has appeared again and she's brought Franky with her.

"Let me go, we're going whether you like it or not!" He declares, struggling out of Zoro's grip. Luckily for him Zoro apparently is concerned about gripping him too hard and won't let go. That works for Sanji but it'd be great if Zoro would let go of his ankles. He doesn't particularly want to have to kick Zoro in the head to make him let go.

"Going where?" Franky asks. Sanji turns to look at him and purses his lips in annoyance. He can guess what the response is going to be here.

"To Shimotsuki of course." He says firmly.

"You are not in a fit state to travel Sanji, you need rest. Come on, you know that." Franky says gently.

"I'll be fine, we're already going to be late as it is and I'm not delaying us any more than I already have!" Sanji insists, lifting up his leg and trying to dislodge Zoro. It's no good though, Zoro has started sitting up and his grip has reached Sanji's calves now.

"I think everyone is going to understand the delay. Anyway I can still manage to navigate enough to get us there on time. I promise Sanji, just take a little longer to rest." Nami says soothingly. Sanji appreciates her concern, a lovely lady such as herself sparing thought for him is very touching but even that isn't going to sway him.

"You promised that you wouldn't do this to me again Sanji. You promised." Zoro says quietly but he may as well have yelled it for all the effect that it has on Sanji. He freezes and looks down at Zoro's face. There's pain there and he hates to see it.

"I'm not going to. I just don't want to have to stay here when we could be going." He tells Zoro. Sanji hesitates and looks over at the others.

"Could you give us a minute?" He asks hopefully, repeating himself in both languages.

Nami and Franky don't look pleased but they do eventually turn and walk off, though Sanji suspects that they won't be far away at all.

Sanji sighs and looks down at his husband. He knows how distraught Zoro was at his near death experience and he hardly wants to put him through that again but Zoro has to understand his position on this. He sits down again, his weight on Zoro's hips. The angle that his legs are at from Zoro's grip might trouble a less flexible man but Sanji is fine.

"I feel useless here. Everyone is just hanging around because of me and I feel..." Sanji trails off. He closes his eyes and switches languages back to Baratian.

"I feel weak here. I'm doing nothing and I just don't want to stay here like this. I already... I already don't want people to think less of me for everything that's happened. I don't want your parents to think less of me. Staying here is just going to make me look worse, don't you see that?" Sanji says quietly. He really isn't used to being like this. If it was Zeff he would have just exploded into anger and kicked Zeff or the furniture and then did what he wanted anyway. Zoro makes him talk somehow. Zeff is probably going to be really fucking smug about the whole thing, especially as his marriage to Zoro was his idea. Well, he can deal with that later.

"You're not weak." Zoro reiterates for about the thousandth time.

"I know that you think that." That's about all that Sanji can concede there because he FEELS weak from all of this. He feels angry at himself for being like this so it's great that Zoro doesn't agree but Sanji is doing this to prove a point to the people in Shimotsuki, to Zoro's parents, but also and possibly mostly to himself. He wants to be better than his injury and what happened to him and if he keeps acting like some fragile thing then he's going to keep feeling like that and he doesn't want that.

"I'll be fine Zoro." He tells the other man, standing up and stepping over him.

"No you won't." Kureha says, making Sanji jump. He turns around and sees that Nami and Franky have returned, this time bringing Chopper and Kureha as well as Usopp, Robin and Ace. Damnit, did the pair of them just sprint around the castle getting everyone that they could over here?

"I will be fine. I feel healthy." Sanji says firmly.

"You still don't have enough blood in you, transfusions can only do so much. My magic has limits too, it's stronger in my castle and has a stronger effect on you here. You still have blood poisoning. If you leave now you'll certainly die without medical attention." Kureha tells him flatly. Zoro scrambles to his feet behind Sanji.

"You can't go!" Chopper declares.

"You can't, you promised. Or are you gonna break a promise like that to me?" Zoro challenges him. Sanji looks over and feels himself waver.

"You said without medical attention, what about with it?" Sanji asks thoughtfully, looking back at Chopper and Kureha.

"Hm, good idea. Chopper, go with them! You said you wanted to be the best doctor, you need to see the world for that. You should leave." Kureha declares. Sanji really should feel some guilt at that but he wants to leave and if he has to leave with a doctor then so be it. Maybe he is used to getting his way a little more than he should as a prince but right now he's not going to apologise for that.

"WHAT? Bu-but no! I have to learn more here, you can't just make me leave!" Chopper says, tearing up a little and clutching at her leg.

"No, I've taught you all that you can learn here without you being a witch, and you're not. So you should go. Maybe I can teach you more next time you're around this way. I still don't think that you'll make it though, you dumb kid. You shouldn't make me go through all of that work for nothing." Kureha says, looking from Chopper to him with a stern expression on her wrinkly old face.

"Sanji, don't be stupid." Usopp pleads.

"What if I spent more time here? How many days do I need until I have a decent chance with him there with me?" Sanji asks, gesturing to Chopper.

"A month for a normal person." Kureha snorts.

"I'm not waiting for a month." Sanji retorts angrily.

"If she says you are then you are." Zoro says gruffly from behind him.

"But for an inhuman man like you... two weeks." She says, rubbing her chin.

"Nine days." Sanji offers.

"You're not haggling here!" Franky chips in and Sanji realises that he'd stuck in Baratian and not switched back. Oh well, it's good that Kureha can speak both, along with most of the people here.

"Eleven." Kureha counters.

"...Ten." Sanji says, holding his hand out.

"Ten days. You'll probably live." Kureha agrees and shakes it.

"Well then sweetness," Sanji grins, making his tone sickly sweet and patting the side of Zoro's face patronisingly. Zoro glares a hole into his head.

"Ten days. Better be packed in time." He says and saunters off, leaving irritable nakama and a thoroughly displeased husband in his wake.

 


	23. Chapter 23

He had watched Sanji carefully on their first day riding away from Drum. He was entirely prepared to go back if Sanji started looking like leaving was a mistake, at the very least he was willing to get him into the luggage cart that had finally caught up to them. They were initially supposed to be riding with it anyway and Zoro is thankful that it simply can’t travel as fast as their horses do, that way the travelling is less gruelling on Sanji.

For his part though Sanji looks okay. He looks annoyed, a little uncomfortable but okay. He’s still paler than he usually is but their newly acquired doctor doesn’t seem to be exploding into a panic at the sight of him so that’s good.

The thing that Zoro finds the least tolerable though is the fact that they have to take that traitor with them. As it is they’ve got that rat tied to his own saddle, his hands bound to the front and rope tied securely around his waist. Zoro had suggested tying him up and making him run behind the horse but Nami reminded him of their agreement with his father-in-law and the fact that going at the speed that the traitor could run or walk behind a horse would massively slow them down. She also pointed out that the longer Sanji spent travelling the worse it would be for his health. That at least changed his mind.

Zoro did however gag him within the first hour because he was muttering angrily to himself and started hurling abuse at Sanji. It doesn’t matter that Sanji provoked him because he’s a little shit, what matters is that Zoro can’t stand to hear the former knight talk at all.

He’s sitting watching Sanji cook when Robin comes and sits next to him. She doesn’t say anything at first which usually either means that she doesn’t intend to and just wants to be near him in pleasant silence or that she has something to say that Zoro very much won’t like.

He pretends like Robin isn’t there, which is fine if Robin just wants to sit in silence and allows him to ignore her if she intends to say something that he doesn’t want to hear. Sanji is talking to Chopper as he cooks and Zoro wonders if one of the reasons that Sanji wanted to leave early was so that he could get back to cooking. It was only in the last few days that Kureha allowed him to do so, something to do with him over exerting himself and being around hot or overly humid environments. Watching Sanji cook now makes Zoro warm inside. He sees the now faint mark of waves around Sanji’s wrists and knows that he can hardly wait to get Sanji to Shimotsuki so that they have a formal occasion and he’ll get to paint Sanji’s new ones on him.

“You know what you have to do, don’t you?” Robin says to him and Zoro sighs, so she is going to say something that he doesn’t like. He sits back and looks at her. Her sharp eyes are watching him carefully and he breaks under them with a sigh.

“What? What do I have to do?” He asks, knowing that he won’t like the answer.

“You need to talk to him.” Robin tells him firmly.

“Please tell me that you mean I need to talk to Sanji because I’m happy to go over there and do that.” Zoro says with a note of hope in his voice. Robin’s eyes narrow at him and that hope is snuffed out.

“No, I don’t mean Sanji. Although while I’m on the topic of Sanji and talking to him, have you discussed your dream with him? Have you told him that you know him yet?” Robin asks and Zoro wishes that he hadn’t used Sanji as an example.

“No.” He admits, scuffing his boot in the floor.

“It’s not the right time to tell him.” He says, kicking his heel into the dirt repeatedly and making little half moon shapes at he does it.

“I asked him if he’d dreamt of anything lately and he told me that he wasn’t dreaming at all. He just… goes to sleep and blacks out. Chopper said it’s both because of how injured he is that his body doesn’t want to do anything but focus on repairing him, also apparently the medication that he’s on doesn’t help.” He says, excusing himself. He’s not just trying to worm out of it, his words are true, even if it feels like he’s hiding from it.

“That sounds like an excuse to me.” Robin says sternly.

“I’ll tell him when he starts dreaming about anything again. He can’t have his dream until then so it’s pointless to do it before then. Baratians don’t even have it in their culture, I can’t explain it properly unless he’s had it, right?” Zoro says, looking up at her.

“I know their culture Zoro, I taught you remember? But, fine, I guess it makes sense to wait a little while longer to make it easier to explain.” Robin concedes.

“Wonderful, great talk, I’d better go-” He starts to say, getting up but two of Robin’s hands wrap around his ankles and the one attached to her body catches his belt at the back and she roughly pulls him down. Robin glares at him and Zoro sighs. This is the bit that he’s not going to like.

“You need to talk to Kaku.” Robin tells him and Zoro leaps back up to his feet.

“Over my dead body I’ll talk to-” He snarls but Robin cuts him off.

“Not yours, Sanji’s! If you don’t find out who put him up to this then the people that did may well try to kill Sanji again. Are you really going to risk Sanji’s life because you don’t want to try to find out just because you don’t want to talk to Kaku? Sanji got lucky once but are you willing to risk it happening twice?” Robin hisses at him.

Zoro is frozen in place, the only part of him that he can move is his head and he looks over past their campfire to see Sanji. The blond looks at him quizzically, tilting his head to the side, a physical version of the unspoken question that he has. The movement inadvertently exposes the red jagged burn on the side of Sanji’s throat. Guilt floods Zoro, he was blind to that lying rat’s treachery before and it nearly cost Sanji’s life. He won’t let that happen again, he can’t.

“I’ll do it.” he tells Robin quietly.

Robin nods, looking troubled. Her eyes track across to where the ex-knight is tied up to the tree in the mid-darkness away from the fire. He hadn’t wanted that scum anywhere near Sanji but that’s the furthest that he could leave him where they could still keep an eye on him to make sure that he didn’t escape.

 

“None of us have been able to get him to talk. Me, Nami and Sanji have all tried, together and individually. He won't say a helpful word, though he had a lot to say to Sanji, that's for sure.” Robin says with a frown. Zoro's face pulls into a similar expression but he remembers the times when Sanji had gone to see the traitor over the last ten days, this time with supervision thankfully. Sanji had never come back looking shaken or upset at all, if anything he had seemed pleased. Apparently his husband enjoyed pissing off the man that tried to kill him. Zoro isn't really surprised. He should probably disapprove more than he does but in a way it's almost funny, he can imagine Sanji's smug grin as he watches that worm snarl and screech at him.

“We need to know.” Zoro agrees unhappily.

“Absolutely.” Robin nods.

“What are you two talking about?” Sanji asks, coming over to the pair of them with their dinner in his hands. Sanji has somehow managed to bake some kind of flatbread in the middle of nowhere near the edge of Drum with just the supplies that he has. Zoro wants to question again whether Sanji is some kind of witch, he had asked after he brought up the matter of Sanji somehow kicking with fire. Sanji had just laughed and said it was a fighting technique to do with the burning anger of his soul or something like that. Sanji might not be a witch but from the nearly magical shit that he does you'd never know it.

“It.” Zoro answers with a sigh, jerking his head towards their prisoner.

“Oh, joy.” Sanji responds in the flattest Baratian that he can manage. Zoro knows that it's sarcasm but he still can't quite master it in Baratian. This isn't the time to practice though.

Sanji hands him his food and Zoro sits back down to eat with Sanji and Robin. The meal that Sanji has cooked is some sort of rabbit, grilled and put on some pasta, it's seasoned really well though Zoro has no idea with what.

“Where did you get this pasta?” Zoro asks through a mouthful of food as he slurps up a strand of it. Sanji sighs at him and looks at Zoro like he is imagining an entire future of whatever it is that Zoro did to piss him off just then.

“It's from Drum, it's dried so I was able to take a bunch with me, having the carriage helps too. I'm able to carry more food. I would rather have had some red wine so that I could make a proper-” And then Sanji lapses into cooking terms that Zoro doesn't understand because it's Baratian and he gets a feeling that he wouldn't understand it even if Sanji was saying it in Tsukian. He nods anyway.

“You're gonna like it in the castle. You can use all of the ingredients that you want and we have a big kitchen.” He tells Sanji and the blond gets this wicked grin on his face.

“Are you trying to seduce me with your big kitchen?” Sanji asks deviously. Why is he looking all amused like that?

“It's really big, you'll be really happy.” he answers uncertainly.

“It's not the size of your... kitchen that matters Zoro, it's how you use it.” Sanji says with a smirk a mile wide. Robin stifles a laugh and Zoro looks at her in puzzlement to see her holding her hand daintily over her mouth with her eyes sparkling in amusement.

“What? What did I say?” Zoro asks, looking between them, his confusion seeming to amuse them more.

“I look forward to it.” Sanji says, suppressing his smile. He laughs a little and stands up, holding his plate in one hand and dusting himself off with the other.

“Well as amusing as that was I'm gonna go make sure that Luffy isn't eating more than his share.” Sanji says, taking his dish with him to go speak to the others.

“What just happened?” Zoro asks, looking at his nakama. Robin shakes her head in amusement, clearly set on not telling him.

“How about this? If you go talk to Kaku I'll tell you afterwards.” She suggests. Zoro groans and sets his empty plate down on the grass, swallowing the last bite of his bread.

“I'm doing this because I have to, not because you're trying to bribe me.” He tells her as he stands up. He's just about to go when Robin's voice stops him.

“Zoro,” she says, looking up at him from where she's sat, “you can promise him anything, tell him anything. Just get him to talk. Lying is an awful thing to do to a person but you owe him no respect at all, he's barely a person as far as I'm concerned. Do what you have to, just don't injure him so much that he can't survive the trip. Our little doctor won't appreciate us maiming his second patient.”

Zoro scowls. Chopper has been juggling his time between the two of them. Zoro understands that he has the execution to think of and his promise to the King to uphold but surely he doesn't need all of his extremities, right? He won't touch his hands though, that much would upset Sanji, even though they're not his. But toes aren't essential, surely?

“I won't maim him then. No matter how much I want to.” Zoro adds under his breath as he walks off.

The scumbag looks up at him as he walks closer and Zoro's hackles raise as he sees the hope light up in the traitor's eyes.

Zoro crouches down and unties the gag, dropping it on the floor. He can eat dirt when he puts it back on.

“Zoro!” He says, the moment that the gag is out.

“Kaku.” Zoro responds through gritted teeth, he’s refused as much as he can to say this traitor’s name but if he has to play nice to save Sanji’s life then he will. Zoro looks at him and tries to think of where the hell he can begin with this shit.

“Zoro I’m sorry that I hurt you.” He apologises quickly and Zoro scowls.

“You hurt Sanji, you tried to kill him.” Zoro points out in a tight voice.

“I’m not sorry about that.” Kaku says bitterly and looks over at Sanji. Zoro follows his line of sight and sees as Sanji realises that Kaku is looking at him. The blonde gives Kaku a bright smile and two middle fingers.

“What does that even mean?” Kaku grumbles.

“It means ‘fuck you’.” Zoro explains, looking away from Sanji’s obscene gesture and back to Kaku.

“I’m not sorry for what I did, but I am sorry that I betrayed your trust and hurt you. I wish I could have avoided that.” he says softly. Zoro stares at him in disbelief. There’s not even a shred of remorse there.

“There’s no way that you could have killed Sanji or tried to without betraying my trust and making me hate you.” He tells him and he doesn’t see how this slime of humanity could possibly think otherwise.

“Look. You betrayed me, you betrayed our country, you could have started a war. Why would you ever have thought that was a good idea? I’m just trying to understand what the fuck you were thinking.” He says and sits down on the ground opposite him.

“I didn’t betray Shimotsuki, I was trying to do my part to save it. An alliance with them would weaken us, ruin our people and our culture, the people that you’re supposed to protect. The King was being weak by trying to sell you off to them, selling our liberty and your choice off in an attempt to make us more secure. I did it for you.” the long nosed bastard says with complete belief on his words.

“So your plan was to… what? Kill my husband and my father and somehow marry me? You can’t have thought that I’d become king and marry you myself. You said that they promised me to you. Who are ‘they’?” He asks. He knows that this is the same question that the others have asked him over and over but just like them Kaku keeps his mouth shut and says nothing.

Zoro shuts his eyes and tries to push his anger away. He’s so angry with Kaku and frustrated at his lack of cooperation. He has every reason to be angry, furious even, but he’s hurt too. If that’s what Kaku feels bad about then maybe that will help.

“Zoro?” Kaku asks quietly and Zoro opens his eyes to look at him again.

“We were friends. How could you betray me like this? How could you betray all of your friends? Who corrupted you so much that you could do this?” He asks, letting the hurt in him show. He’s not faking it and maybe it’s best that he show it, it’s probably good to let it out. They genuinely had been friends for years, Zoro trusted him enough to have him as one of his knights. He had never thought that this could happen and his blames himself for this whole thing too. Nowhere near as much as he blames that fucker of course, but he does blame himself.

“It was going to happen with or without me Zoro, this way I can keep you safe. They want to change Shimotsuki, what did you think that people with goals like that would want to do to the prince? But if I agreed to kill him I would be with you, you’d be safe. That’s why I agreed.” Kaku insists.

“Bullshit!” Zoro snarls, the anger coming right back. It burns up the back of his throat like bile. He kneels forward and slams his fist into the tree trunk by the traitor’s head.

“Someone came to you and told you all of this and the only reason you didn’t come to me and tell me was because you hated the idea of Sanji being with me! If you had told me, told my father, then we could have fought off any coup!” He shouts and leans in to Kaku’s space.

“You were jealous, you couldn’t stand the thought of me being with someone else! But if you’d had any balls then you could have told me how you felt years ago, or whenever you started deluding yourself that you felt love for me! If you had done that then you would have known that there would never be anything between us. But you wouldn’t because you’re a coward.” He accuses and he knows that he’s right. If that hadn’t been the case then those plotting against Zoro and his family and nakama would never have reached out to him.

“I’m not a coward!” he protests loudly.

“Yeah, you are. You lied to me like a coward, you hid your feelings like a coward, you tried to kill Sanji by assassination like a coward and now you’re too cowardly to face the truth. You’re a coward, you’re weak.” He says darkly, backing away from Kaku. He doesn’t even want to be near this scum.

“When I get you back to Shimotsuki you’re going to be executed. I’m going to throw you in the dungeon and you’ll be put through so much pain that you’ll beg to die, then I’ll drag you out of there and execute you in front of everyone. You tried to kill Sanji with a blade so I’m going do the same to you. I’ll blunt your precious swords right in front of you and then I’m going to behead you with them, it’ll be slow, painful and humiliating. I’ll strike your name from the country, no one will ever speak it and you’ll be erased from history. You will be the nobody that you really are.” He tells Kaku coldly and watches the traitor’s eyes go wide in fear or horror, maybe both.

“But here, this is an option for a coward. Tell me what I want to know, tell me who made you this offer and you can skip the dungeon. I’ll kill you with my own sword, it’ll be so sharp and so fast you’ll never feel a thing. That’s the option you want to choose. Think about it.” He says nastily and stands up.

The treasonous rat looks up at him and it’s a second or two before Zoro senses someone else there. He looks to the side and sees Sanji holding a plate and waiting. His husband notices that he’s dropped his attention from the scumbag and clears his throat.

“I didn’t want to interrupt you there, but I’ve got food for him. Even traitors have to eat.” Sanji tells him and Zoro scowls.

“I don’t want any food of yours.” Kaku says angrily.

“Well too bad asshole, I cooked everything so you’ve got no choice about it.” Sanji laughs and crouches down at Kaku’s side.

“Fine, untie my arms and I’ll eat, give that to me.” Kaku says with a smile.

“That’s not happening. I don’t care if all you have is a spoon.” Zoro says immediately.

“As much as I agree with your decision not to untie his arms I kind of have to point out to you that you can easily kill someone with a spoon.” Sanji points out, switching to Baratian to leave Kaku out of the conversation. Zoro stares at him and then the perfectly innocuous and non threatening rounded head of the spoon.

“What?” He asks in confusion, sticking with Sanji’s language.

“Oh please Zoro, I’m a cook, I could kill a man with anything in a kitchen. You just flip it around like this and then stab someone with the handle, it’s not that hard.” Sanji says like it’s obvious. Zoro stares at him and the thought of someone trying to fight Sanji in a kitchen. He can visualise Sanji turning anything and everything into a weapon, no one would stand a chance. A thrill runs up his spine and he wants to get Sanji to walk him through a kitchen and just tell him what he would do with everything around in a fight.

“Zoro, back to the real world please. You have weird-” Sanji says and Zoro doesn’t know the last word but he does remember it from their time together in the forest so it absolutely is to do with sexual things. Yeah, considering where his brain was going with that Sanji isn’t wrong.

“Anyway,” Sanji says, switching back to Tsukian and looking at the tied up man. “You need to eat.”

Zoro notices that the food on the plate has all been cut up small enough to eat in one bite or less. Sanji takes a reasonable spoonful of it and holds it out in front of Kaku. He glares at Sanji and stubbornly doesn’t move.

“Listen, asshole, I don’t have any books with me, it’s too dark to really train out here, I literally have nothing else that I need to do. I can sit here all fucking night, you will eat.” Sanji tells him.

The traitor scowls but after a few moments he leans forward and takes the food off of the spoon and chews it. Sanji is just moving it back to the plate for another spoonful when Kaku spits it right back in Sanji’s face. Zoro is too stunned to move. He numbly sees Sanji’s jaw tighten and the blond reaches up and flicks the chewed up meat and pasta off of his face.

Zoro’s shock drops away from him and rage fills its place. He lashes out with a foot and jams it into Kaku’s still healing ribs, making the fucker scream out. Sanji stands up and shakes his hair out, turning without a word or a backwards glance and walking towards the fireside.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? How much lower are you going to sink?” He snarls, digging his foot in. Kaku grits his teeth but Zoro can still hear the pained whine that slides from his mouth.

“Are you really surprised that I’d never love you? Never in a million years.” He spits, and actually does spit at Kaku.

“It doesn’t matter, you’re just angry.” he wheezes.

“Angry doesn’t even cover it!” Zoro yells furiously.

“You’ll calm down, eventually.” the traitor tells him as Zoro removes his boot. He’s leaving.

“They’ll still honour it, you know. He’ll die and they’ll uphold their bargain. Sooner or later you’ll realise that I was right and we can be happy.” he tells Zoro’s back. Zoro halts and turns mechanically around to this incredibly deluded bastard.

“Sanji won’t die.” Zoro says through gritted teeth.

“Sure he will. If that infection doesn’t get him, or riding all day for weeks, even if that doesn’t… you can’t watch him all the time.” Kaku tells him, his eyes showing absolutely no sign of a lie. He still intends to murder Sanji, even after all of this.

“He kicked your fucking ass when he was bleeding out, he took you in a duel, you’re outclassed. You always were, you were never going to measure up. Anyway, I don’t need to watch him all of the time. We’re watching YOU.” He says coldly.

“And, even if you somehow managed it and the rest of you traitors did succeed in your plan, I would never forgive you. I’d kill you for it, even if you tried to stop me, even if you took my swords away. You’d have to sleep sometime and if you were anywhere near me you’d never wake up again. No matter what you’re never getting what you want. I’d rather die than be with you.” Zoro says coldly and walks back to the fireside where his nakama and friends are sitting.

Sanji is bent over almost double when Zoro gets near to him and if it wasn't for the attractive view he probably would have been smart enough to realise that Sanji was washing the splatters of spit out food in his hair. Unfortunately Sanji in that position is an attractive view and so the first moment Zoro puts two and two together is when Sanji stands up sharply, flicking his head back as he does it and soaking half of Zoro's body. Usopp bursts out laughing and Sanji looks around quickly to see what he's laughing at, the movement gifting Zoro with another dose of water, this time in a fine coating of mist and raindrops across his face.

"Well, you still look better than I do." Sanji offers in a conciliatory voice. Zoro hopes that his expression conveys just how flatly unimpressed he is with Sanji's words.

"Hey, I've got another stained shirt to deal with. I swear you people have something against my clothes. I don't care how much this keeps happening, I'm not riding around shirtless." Sanji says firmly.

It takes Zoro a few moments to shake that image out of his head and to remind himself that he doesn't actually want Sanji to travel around shirtless this close to Drum. He's already lost a lot of blood and has an infection, Sanji doesn't need hypothermia added to his list of ailments.

"I feel so bad for you. You know that we have clothes in Shimotsuki right?" He points out, wiping off his leather armor.

"Well, yeah but..." Sanji trails off and pointedly looks Zoro up and down.

"Hey! What're you trying to say?" Zoro protests in offence. There is nothing wrong with his clothes at all! They have good protection, they're functional and don't even have any holes in!

"That they look better off of you." Sanji purrs into his ear and a shudder runs up Zoro's spine. He's refrained himself from touching Sanji in any way that borders on sexual because he doesn't want to overexert his husband when he should be putting his energy into healing up from his injuries and sickness, but Sanji doesn't exactly make it easy to keep that resolve. Hell, just watching the blond change at night or having his compactly muscled frame pressed against Zoro's as they settle down to sleep is enough to test his resolve.

"What did you say Sanji? I think you broke him!" Franky laughs loudly and that snaps Zoro back to the present.

"I don't know what you mean Franky." Sanji says in his most innocent voice.

"Anyway, since I don't want to keep washing food out of my hair and clothes can you go feed him Franky? You're more threatening, so he might do what you say." Sanji suggests, rubbing his free hand through his hair to flick more water out of it while he uses his other to hand the dish over to the large man.

"Hey, I'm threatening!" Usopp protests.

"Not up close, though I guess you could try to use your slingshot to shoot food into his mouth from here but I don't think that'd work very well and I'd hate to have to kick your ass for wasting any." Sanji laughs and Usopp pouts slightly.

"What does it matter?" Zoro mutters and Sanji turns around to look at him.

"What? Usopp's ability to shoot food? Please don't encourage him, I was joking." Sanji says with a raise of his eyebrow. Zoro shoves the image of Usopp doing just that out of his head and gets back to what he was saying.

"I mean feeding that traitor." He clarifies. Behind Sanji both Usopp and Franky jolt and stare at the two of them, clearly they're interested in the idea too.

"Well he has to eat sometime, he can't just keep spitting it out. That was probably more to do with the fact that it was me anyway." Sanji grimaces and flicks a bit of food off of his shirt that he hadn't noticed until just now.

"I mean feeding him at all." Zoro tells him. Behind Sanji the two Baratians stare at him in horror and start shaking their heads desperately. What the fuck are they doing that for?

"Prisoners eat. He is going to eat." Sanji says curtly and Usopp and Franky stare wide eyed at the two of them.

"He already proved that he didn't want it, spitting it at you. He's lucky that I didn't break anything for that, why should he be given another chance to do that again?" Zoro reasons.

"He's not going to do it to me again, is he? Franky is the one feeding him, right Franky?" Sanji asks, glancing over his shoulder.

"Yes! Absolutely, I will go feed Kaku right now." Franky blurts out, getting to his feet quickly.

"Don't bother." Zoro tells Franky. Sanji looks away from Franky and narrows his eyes at Zoro. Franky looks at Zoro in terror and shakes his head again, behind him Usopp is making a giant X shape with his arms. What are the two of them acting like that for?

"Don't bother with what?" Sanji asks, his tone so flat and threatening that Zoro has to stare at him in confusion. What else could he possibly mean? Surely he's not screwing up his Baratian so badly that Sanji can't understand him. Though maybe it's not coming out right because the subject is food and he's not as practiced at that.

"With feeding the ungrateful bastard. Just let him starve." He tells Sanji.

Usopp and Franky both wince and recoil, Franky actually takes a few steps back. When he looks away from their confusing reaction he sees that Sanji's face is a tight kind of neutral, his whole posture is stiff and his fists are actually tensed like he's going to punch something.

"You don't mean that. He's not going to starve, Franky go feed him. Now." Sanji says stiffly and Franky scarpers past the two of them, giving Zoro a fearful look as he passes.

"Don't, maybe it'll teach him a lesson." Zoro tells Franky who shakes his head as he walks past, not even listening to Zoro. Zoro only just reacts in time to dodge the hand that flies at him. He stares at Sanji and isn't sure if the blond just tried to punch him or what. He doesn't get much time to think about it because Sanji's hand wraps around the earrings in Zoro's ear and yanks him over, it's either that or suddenly go from having three piercings to having none at all.

"Hey! What the fuck?!" He demands, grabbing Sanji's wrist. He's not willing to do anything to break Sanji's grip, that'd risk damaging his hands, but he's not going to let Sanji haul him about by his earrings any more than he already has.

"Don't you ever fucking say that kind of shit around me again. I don't care who they are, no one who is with me will ever miss a meal and I sure as shit won't deliberately deprive someone of one. Neither will you." Sanji hisses and shoves him away.

"I'm going to be nice and assume that you're just angry and you didn't mean that at all or that you somehow mistranslated what you meant. Now shut the fuck up and leave me alone." Sanji adds and turns his back on Zoro.

"What's the big deal? After what he did he deserves to suffer, and I didn't see you complaining about his execution so what does it matter if he goes hungry until then? I mean, sure he still has to be alive when we get back but it takes longer than that to die from not eating. He deserves it!" Zoro shouts after Sanji.

"Oh no." Usopp whispers and covers his face with his hands. Even Robin looks seriously concerned.

Sanji is stock still with his back still facing Zoro. Zoro takes a step closer and it's only out of his fast reflexes that he's able to jerk a sword up out of its sheath to protect his body from the kick that Sanji sends his way. It still sends him flying though and he rolls once when he hits the floor before he's able to find his feet. His sleeve is on fire and he yells in alarm and slaps at it with his other hand. He looks up and sees Sanji advancing on him. Zoro's eyes widen as he stares at Sanji. One of Sanji's legs is burning, the shape of his leg underneath it white hot in a way that he's not even seen on Ace. With the campfire behind him casting him into shadow Sanji looks like some terrible avenging God.

Zoro scrambles to his feet and draws his swords. His first thought is that somehow something or someone else is controlling Sanji, but the closer the man gets the more he sees that the rage on his face is all Sanji. Sanji leaps for him and he is moving so fast that Zoro can barely keep up, this isn't a spar, Sanji means this. The kick that Sanji throws at him makes Zoro's swords ring and the vibration down the blades makes his wrists ache. He's pretty sure that kick could have broken a bone at least.

"Sanji! Sanji what's wrong with you?!" He demands, dodging another attack. He can't keep doing this, Sanji is too fast and too angry. Normally he would be able to push back against this and put them on more even footing but in Sanji's injured state he's not willing to risk it. He doesn't know if Sanji knows that or doesn't care but either way Sanji keeps pressing that advantage and Sanji kicks him to the floor sooner than Zoro would be happy to admit.

Sanji presses a burning foot to Zoro's chestplate and he is reminded of the burnt hole in Kaku's armour, of the footprint still marred on his skin, albeit lighter than the scar on Sanji's neck. This is what Sanji did to Kaku and now he's doing it to him.

"If you ever, ever say something like that around me again I will never speak to you after that until the day I die. If you really feel like you could starve a man, if you really feel like that is ever an acceptable thing to do to anyone regardless of their crime, if you could even CONSIDER actually doing it... then I've been wrong about you. I could never love a man who would do that. If that is who you really are then I never want you to so much as touch me again." Sanji snarls at him and Zoro stares up at Sanji in horror.

"No, Sanji, please-" Zoro says desperately, he can't lose this, he can't lose Sanji. Not now that he's sure that he knows him, how can this be happening?

"Don't fucking beg, do you think that or not? Would you ever do that to someone? Have you ever done that to someone?!" Sanji roars at him and the fire flares up his leg again, even higher this time. Sanji presses his foot in a little harder and Zoro is starting to feel painfully hot underneath his armour, thankfully it's keeping the worst of it away but he can hear the sizzle of the leather and feel the way that the metal is heating and warping underneath that layer.

"No, no, I've never. I didn't mean- I-" Zoro answers as fast as he can. He's not sure if he did mean it or not. He's never actually done that to someone before but after nearly losing Sanji he feels like Kaku deserves any pain that can possibly be inflicted on him.

"Don't you dare say that again. Don't you even start to think that I don't mean what I say. I will destroy everything between us if you do, because the man that I love would never do that and if you would then that man is just a lie that I believed about you." Sanji snarls. He shoves Zoro away and walks off, the fire dying down. He shoves his way into their tent and leaves Zoro leaning up in the mud in the dark staring after Sanji with his heart racing and terror clutching at his throat.

As the flap to their tent flicks shut behind Sanji the image of a shark fin slicing through the water away from him appears in Zoro's mind. He knows Sanji, that much is certain. He found it hard before to describe what knowing someone was supposed to mean, it was even harder then when he had never known anyone himself. He could explain it better now though.

Knowing someone is to be a part of another person, to see all that they are deep down, to see parts of them that no one else ever can or will see. He has to accept Sanji for all that he is, dark underwater caverns and deadly predators included. They're all part of the whole that makes up who Sanji is, Sanji's soul is just as much the deadly teeth that Zoro just had snapped at him as he is the calm warm waters that ran over Zoro's form in the dream. With someone that you love you can be with them for a lifetime and not realise all of who they are, but with knowing someone everything is bare. He knows who Sanji really is but he doesn't know everything about him, there is still so much to learn and it seems so many ways that he can fuck up.

That's the terrifying thing. Knowing someone doesn't guarantee a lasting relationship. Magically connected or not a relationship is still a relationship. Just as parents and children are bound forever in that relationship to each other and connected by blood it doesn't mean that they can't be terrible for each other. There are parents that are awful to their children and children who loathe their parents. Even the relationships that should be the best can go toxic and sick like a wound. If he fucks up then he could ruin what he has with Sanji and it'd be all the worse because he'll know just what he's lost. He needs to fix this.

Zoro gets to his feet with a wince of pain. His hand goes to his chestplate and he feels where the leather has been completely burnt away. Underneath the layer of toughened leather is a tightly interlocking mesh of fine chainmail and iron threads keeping it fixed. The metal has started to melt in places and is still uncomfortably warm through to the leather backing behind it that touches Zoro's underclothes. He doesn't know if his chestplate is only half burnt through because that's the strength of Sanji's fire or if, and he suspects that this is the case, Sanji simply didn't want to actually kill him. No, this was a punishment for saying something terrible, the warning was Sanji's threat.

He hesitates about whether to go in the tent after Sanji or not, but he decides against it. Sanji is beyond furious and he's aware enough of the other man's temperament to know that he needs to cool down before Zoro stands a chance at having a rational discussion with him. If he goes in now he'll just regret it. Besides, it'd be quicker just to break his own nose rather than trouble Sanji with the task.

He runs his hands through his hair and breathes in and out slowly, trying to get his breathing back to normal or even slow enough to be meditative. He can't just tell Sanji that he's sorry if he doesn't know what he's sorry for, so he needs to think. It's obviously to do with feeding the traitor, that was what made Sanji lose his head.

He said that Sanji shouldn't bother feeding him and in part he stands by it. If that traitor feels like he can just spit Sanji's hard made food out at him then he doesn't deserve it. Sooner or later he'll be hungry enough to swallow his pride along with whatever food he's offered. That was what he had meant, really. But he loathes that fucker so much that he wants to see him suffer, that was what had made him wish for his starvation. Kaku deserves anything terrible doesn't he? Zoro winces, even thinking it he's not convinced.

He knows that his culture is different to Sanji's and that they have different values. Sanji's culture is all about food, they're almost pathological about it, so maybe suggesting starving someone sounds as brutal as attacking someone in ways that would garner the death penalty in Shimotsuki.

Sanji had given him multiple opportunities to get out of his dumb words but Zoro had just charged right on through them and said something awful. He’s an idiot. He really can’t stand the idea of losing Sanji so he’ll do anything that Sanji wants to make things right, his pride be damned.

He sighs and walks back to the fireside glumly. He can’t help but notice that Kaku is looking smug so Zoro takes the opportunity to flip him off and go sit down next to Usopp. He is not going to fuck up his marriage and he is absolutely not going to do so in front of him.

“So, how much of an idiot am I?” He asks Usopp warily.

“Honestly? A complete idiot.” Usopp tells him, and though Zoro isn’t pleased at his answer he at least respects that Usopp is brave enough to tell him. Either Usopp has got more comfortable with him over the last half a year or he’s got braver. Maybe both.

“That pretty much was the worst thing you could have said to Sanji.” Franky adds, walking back to them and sitting down next to Zoro, dropping the now empty dish on the floor.

“I’ll let him calm down, maybe wait until my ribs stop aching and then I’ll go apologise.” Zoro groans, now that the adrenaline is fading from his system he can really feel every place that Sanji managed to land a hit on him.

“And then maybe wait a couple of hours after that.” Franky adds, his voice flat and unimpressed. Zoro nods unhappily.

“Can either of you tell me how he does this? Because he’s said that he’s not a witch but this looks pretty supernatural to me.” Zoro ask, pointing at the burnt out mark on his armor. Thank goodness that he’s got reasonably heavy armor on, rather than the lightweight stuff that the fucking traitor over there had on, it burnt right through his but only halfway through Zoro’s. That said he’s pretty sure that Sanji was trying to kill Kaku and no matter how angry Sanji was with him just then he knows that the blond wasn’t trying to kill him. No, if the prince wanted him dead he would know about it.

“Oh. No, that’s not magical, or not really I don’t think. He says it’s something to do with the ‘burning intensity of the soul’, but who knows?” Usopp shrugs. He wonders if it’s possible to be only part witch, he’ll have to ask Nami sometime.

Zoro takes his breastplate off and rubs his sore chest, trying to stop the muscles from cramping due to pain, it’ll only make it worse if they do. He looks forlornly at his armor. Half of the protection on it is gone, it’ll still function until they get back to Shimotsuki but afterwards he’ll have to replace it. Damnit, he liked that breastplate, he had just got it nicely broken in so that the leather inside was just soft and comfortable.

He stays up late but Sanji doesn’t re-emerge from the tent at all and though Zoro lingers doing every last chore that needs doing he eventually runs out of things and has no reason not to go to bed. He picks up his breastplate, intending on just dropping it on the floor inside of the tent but after a moment of thought he puts it back on. He likes his ribs unbroken thank you very much.

He lights his small lantern from the fire and takes it with him. He ducks inside the tent, gently illuminating it with his small light. Sanji is in bed, with his back to the opening to the tent and to Zoro. Zoro isn’t sure if Sanji is asleep or not. He seems safe from kicking for the moment, and he can’t sleep in his armor so he takes it off. He sets it on the floor near the book that he recognises as Sanji’s journal. He wonders how much ink was spent today on angry words about him.

He changes out of his clothes and into his bedclothes, keeping his eyes on Sanji for almost the entire time. When he’s fully changed he creeps a little closer to Sanji and looks at him carefully, he’s not sure if Sanji’s breathing indicating whether he’s awake or not. Usually he’d say that Sanji’s breathing isn’t slow and deep enough for a sleeping person, but the infection in his blood might skew that. He catches the silver shine of chain at Sanji’s neck as he shifts slightly. The blond started wearing his mother’s necklace again more or less since he woke up from his injury and was up for any real length of time. Zoro isn’t sure if it’s something that he draws comfort from or if Sanji is hoping that the glittering chain and shining blue stone will distract people from the angry red scar on his neck.

“Sanji, are you awake?” Zoro asks quietly.

“If I wasn’t already then I am now.” Sanji responds tersely.

“Sorry, that was a stupid question.” he sighs. Good start Zoro, well done.

“That’s not surprising.” Sanji mutters angrily. Zoro winces, yeah, he probably deserved that.

“I’m really sorry about tonight. I shouldn’t have said what I did. I apologise.” He says sincerely. He watches Sanji’s back tense up and knows that Sanji is probably glaring a hole in the side of their tent.

“We’re not talking about this now. I’m going to sleep.” Sanji says sharply.

That was a very obvious rejection of Zoro’s apology. Zoro’s heart sinks but he can accept that Sanji isn’t ready to forgive him, he’s certainly in no position to feel entitled to it. He nods, though more to himself than Sanji as the man isn’t looking at him. He shuffles over to their bags and pulls out an extra blanket, he drags it over to the spot that he was kneeling in by the bed. He turns out the lamp and pulls the blanket over him as he settles down on the floor. He rests his head on his forearm to make himself a little more comfortable.

“What’re you doing?” Sanji asks in the darkness.

“Going to sleep.” Zoro answers, what else would be he doing?

“On the floor?” he asks again. Zoro bites back the sarcastic answer of ‘no, in the air’ and instead answers properly, he doesn’t want to piss Sanji off further.

“Yeah.” he says instead.

“Why?” Sanji asks.

“Because you’re angry at me, right?” Zoro asks, leaning up on one elbow and staring into the darkness where he knows Sanji is. Maybe the rest of his night vision will kick in soon and he’ll be able to see some of him.

“Yes.” Sanji says.

“Well, then you probably don’t want me near you and I don’t want to get kicked in the chest again either. I’m not going to make you put up with being close to me when you don’t want to be just because we only have one bed. It’s my fault that you’re angry with me so I’ll sleep here.” Zoro explains carefully, he doesn’t want his meaning to get screwed up from their language barrier.

There’s a pause and Zoro starts wondering if he should repeat himself in Baratian just to be sure that Sanji really understands.

“Are you trying to make me feel bad for you?” Sanji asks and it sounds vaguely accusatory, but Zoro can’t work out why.

“No, why would I?” Zoro says with a frown.

“Because you’re on the floor instead of the bed and you said it’s because I’m angry. So it’s my fault that you’re on the floor, so I’d feel bad.” Sanji tells him and yeah, there is suspicion in his voice.

“Why would you feel bad? It’s my fault. I said something I shouldn’t have, you’re angry, I’m not going to make you be close to me so I’m sleeping on the floor. I don’t understand why you would feel bad or… have I made you angry again?” Zoro asks, worried that he’s tripped over some other cultural difference. Twice in one night would be really bad.

“No.” Sanji tells him and says nothing else.

“I’m… confused.” Zoro admits. Sanji makes this exasperated sound and Zoro can hear him throw himself flat on the bed. He can just picture Sanji lying there with his hands over his face, his whole body the picture of frustration. Zoro can’t help but smile and is glad that Sanji can’t see it.

“Look, you’re going to be sore in the morning if you sleep on the floor.” Sanji says plainly.

“I’ll be fine. I’ve slept in places way less comfortable.” he assures him.

“Where?” Sanji asks sounding curious.

“In the top of a tree between two branches. It was one of those trees where all of the branches are spiny too, and it was raining.” He says.

“Why the fuck were you sleeping there?” his husband asks incredulously.

“Me, Luffy and Nami were out in the wilderness and she went into this town to get information on this cave with some treasure or something in, I don’t remember what it was, and this goat stole Luffy’s hat. We ran after it but it turned out that this goat wasn’t an adult but was a baby goat of these giant flesh eating monster goats. Luffy punched it right in front of its parents so that he could get his hat back but then they chased us as they wouldn’t stop. We ran up these trees to get away from them because they couldn’t climb and we slept up there to wait it out. By morning all but two of them had got bored, so we killed the two that were sleeping and then went back to where we were supposed to be.” He explains. Man, Nami had been so pissed off at them for that.

“I don’t even- how did- wh- you know what? Never mind. You’re an idiot. You’ll still get sore from sleeping on the floor.” Sanji says.

“I guess.” he shrugs.

“Don’t be such a fucking dumbass, get in here. I’m pissed off at you still, don’t think I’m not, but I won’t have you sleeping on the floor just for that. Besides… it’s cold and the bed is uncomfortable without you in it.” Sanji says, muttering the last part.

Zoro opens his mouth but Sanji speaks before he does.

“If you ask me if I’m sure I’ll put my foot through your face.” Sanji says, just in time to stop Zoro doing just that.

“Okay.” He says instead and slides into the bed. Sanji shuffles back slightly and when Zoro is in the bed on his back Sanji drapes himself over Zoro just like he usually does. Zoro’s arm curls around Sanji’s back and he feels the deep breath in and the quiet sigh as it goes out.

“I’m still angry at you.” Sanji tells Zoro, his face pressed into his shirt.

“I’m sorry.” He tells Sanji again.

“Go to sleep, idiot.” Sanji mutters and tightens his arm around Zoro’s middle. Zoro turns his head and buries his nose in Sanji’s hair for a moment, he pushes his luck and kisses Sanji’s head softly. Sanji doesn’t protest though and Zoro thanks his lucky stars as he falls asleep with Sanji curled around him.

****  
  


Zoro is jarred from sleep by a yell and an elbow to his solar plexus. He gags for a moment at the sensation but sits up too, his hand flying to his swords. He’s crouched ready with Wado in his hand and Kaku’s threat to Sanji’s life ringing in his mind. He stares in the dark, his night vision working perfectly now, but can’t see anyone or anything but Sanji’s curled up sitting form. He can hear the ragged way that Sanji is breathing.

“Sanji, are you hurt?” He asks but he gets no answer from Sanji. This is just like that night before, where Sanji awoke from a dream about something that happened to him. He moves to his bag and lights a match, re-lighting his lamp and looking back at Sanji. The blonde is sat upright, curled around himself. His knees are up tight against his chest and his face pressed into them, his arms are wrapped around his legs and Zoro can see his whole body shaking like a leaf in the wind.

What did Usopp do last time? Water, that was it. He grabs his flask of water and carefully crawls up to Sanji, making enough noise that the man can hear him coming but not enough to startle him from the sound.

“Sanji, it’s me, it’s Zoro. You need to drink something. I’ve got water, here.” He says, slowly and calmly in Baratian. He touches his hand to Sanji’s back and feels Sanji jump. He presses the flask into Sanji’s hands and guides him into drinking it. He’s shaking a little less now.

Usopp… Usopp got him to eat something didn’t he? That chocolate thing that Sanji had with him.

“Wait here.” He tells Sanji and gets up and goes to Sanji’s things. He feels a little bad about going through the man’s possessions without his permission but given the circumstances he thinks it’s okay. He lands upon the weird mint smelling chocolate thing and returns to Sanji with it. He breaks a chunk off and holds it out.

“Do you want to eat?” He asks and Sanji’s eyes focus on him, wild and scared. Sanji’s hand snaps out and before Zoro can even speak Sanji has crammed the broken off part that Zoro gave him into his mouth. It’s a good thing that Zoro didn’t just give him the whole thing.

“Hey, go slower or you’ll choke on that. It’s okay, you’re okay Sanji.” He tells him soothingly.

He wishes that he knew what was wrong. This is the second time that Sanji has woken up like this, well, the third if he counts when Sanji first woke up in Drum. That shouldn’t count though because Sanji’s body just went into panic mode because it thought that he hadn’t eaten in…

Zoro looks down at the chocolate thing in his hand. Zeff gave Sanji this. Zeff knew what to say to Sanji when he woke up, it was about him having enough food, that he would be okay because he had food. Sanji woke up both times when they were travelling and immediately needed to eat or drink, anything to get something in his stomach. He remembers the way that Sanji screamed at him about the idea of not feeding Kaku, of letting him starve. He remembers Sanji’s admission that the dream that had woken him into this state before was not a dream but a memory.

“It happened to you.” He says aloud as the idea occurs to him. Sanji has been starved before. Sanji’s mind has tricked him into thinking that he’s starving now.

“Sanji, Sanji look at me.” Zoro says, reaching out and tilting Sanji’s head to look at him.

“You’re okay, you’re safe, we have food. You’re fine. If you want we can get up and you can cook and eat as much as you want, you’re okay. If you want you can eat more of this.” He offers, holding the chocolate up.

Sanji seems to come back to himself a little more and shakes his head. He drinks a little more slowly from his flask and leans against Zoro. Zoro settles himself behind Sanji and breathes slowly, trying to trick Sanji’s body into matching his pace and not keep breathing like he’s just sprinted a mile.

He did this to Sanji. He opened his stupid mouth, he threatened to starve someone and whether he meant it or not he still said the words and Sanji’s mind reacted to them. He didn’t threaten to do it to Sanji but evidently it made him remember what that was like for him. He doesn’t know how or when Sanji had to go without food, Baratie has never had a famine, but logically he must have been through it himself. He reminded Sanji of that and now Sanji is in this state.

He has more to apologise about than he thought.

It takes a while but Sanji calms down, the lingering sensations of his memories fading. He can tell when Sanji is fully back to himself when he sees the man’s head turn ever so slightly. Sanji sometimes watches Zoro through that dumb screen of hair that he has over one eye, like Zoro can’t tell that he’s doing it. Sanji’s doing it right now.

“You don’t have to talk about it,” Zoro says slowly, “but it happened to you didn’t it?”

Sanji takes a deep breath in and then lets it out slowly, Zoro feels Sanji’s chest move as he does it.

“What happened to me?” Sanji asks, clearly trying to see if Zoro knows what he thinks he knows.

“You starved, didn’t you?” Zoro answers. Sanji shudders and Zoro’s heart clenches with guilt.

“You don’t have to-”

“The shipwreck that killed my mother stranded me and Zeff on this rock in the middle off the ocean. No fresh water except for rain and no more than a day’s food, I made it last longer but…” Sanji’s voice trails off.

“He gave me all of the food too.” Sanji adds quietly and clearly he means Zeff.

Zoro works it out, Sanji was just a little boy then. He lost his mother and starved on a rock until he was presumably rescued. That’s one traumatic experience after another.

“I’m sorry.” He says quietly. Sanji keeps talking though, maybe he figures that if he’s started explaining it then it’s best to keep going. Sanji probably only wants to talk about this the once so if he tells Zoro everything now then he never has to speak of it again.

“We were there for eighty five days.” Sanji says stiffly.

Eighty five?

“How many?” he asks, he must have heard that wrong.

“Eighty five.” Sanji repeats, but this time in Tsukian to make sure that Zoro gets it.

Zoro stares at the back of Sanji’s head for a moment or two. He tries to imagine how that’s possible and what that could be like. His mind simply can’t imagine it though.

“How are you still alive?!” He yells, making Sanji wince. That was probably a little too loud and too close to Sanji’s ear.

“I nearly wasn’t.” Sanji says simply.

“How did the King survive if he gave you all of the food?” Zoro asks as the thought occurs to him.

“What do you think happened to his leg? He had to eat something.” Sanji says slowly, turning his head to look at Zoro properly.

Zeff… ate his own leg.

The King of Baratie cut off his own leg and ate it to survive.

He’s never seen Zeff carry a blade around so he can assume that the King didn’t have one then.

He slowly and painfully removed half of his own leg and ate it to survive.

Fuck, how can anyone think that Zeff and Sanji are anywhere close to being weak or pampered. That’s more toughness than most Tsukians can lay claim to. But Sanji… Sanji was just a kid. He lost his mother in something that may turn out to be a planned attempt on her life and if it was it would most likely have been an attempt to kill all three of them. Sanji survived that, no doubt something that he feels guilty for all by itself. He nearly starved to death on a rock for eighty five days before he was presumably rescued, he had only a day’s worth of food that he probably stretched as far as humanly possible before going without. On top of that his father gave him all of the food and then painfully cannibalised his own body to survive without the food that he gave Sanji.

It’s a wonder that Sanji hasn’t lost his mind completely.

He closes his arms around Sanji and presses his forehead into Sanji’s shoulder. It’s stupid, this isn’t going to make up for all that Sanji went through and it’s not as if he can change the past if he just holds Sanji close enough. What else can he do though?

Sanji is deeply scarred from what he went through and Zoro casually threatened to do that to someone else, the mention of which made Sanji’s mind replay what he went through all over again.

“I’m sorry.” Zoro apologises quietly. “I can’t imagine what that was like and I didn’t… I knew it’d be awful but I never considered how awful. I just want him to suffer for what he did to us but I don’t think I could put anyone through what you went through. I shouldn’t have said it.”

Sanji turns around in Zoro’s arms and twists so that’s he’s nearly facing Zoro completely. The light is low but he can still see the small frown on Sanji’s face.

“Wow, when you apologise you really apologise, huh?” Sanji says with a small laugh that rings hollow to Zoro’s ears.

“I mean it, I promise.” He tells Sanji.

“I didn’t think you were lying, idiot. That’s not what I meant.” Sanji replies.

“I just want you to know that would never do that to anyone and I’ll never say that kind of shit again.” Zoro says firmly. A small smile makes its way onto Sanji’s face and some of the tension in Zoro’s chest unwinds.

“If I had thought that you were actually going to do it you’d be dead already.” Sanji tells him.

“I’d deserve it too.” Zoro agrees.

“Alright, no more-” Sanji says and says a word that Zoro doesn’t know, he’s clearly about to say something else but Zoro butts in.

“No more what? I don’t know that word.”

“Grovelling.” Sanji says slowly enunciating the word.

“It means… apologising and throwing yourself on someone’s mercy and really overdoing it. ‘Oh I’m so sorry Sanji, I’m lower than dirt, I can’t apologise enough, please punish me until you’re satisfied I’ve suffered enough, I’m so sorry’ like that.” Sanji tells him with a wry smile.

“Yeah, well, I mean i-mmph!” Zoro is cut off by Sanji clapping his hand over Zoro’s mouth.

“None of that. You were an idiot, but you didn’t know what you were talking about. You listened so now you have an idea and you’re sorry. That’s enough. I forgive you. No more apologising and if you look like you are going to apologise more then I’m not taking my hand away.” Sanji tells him.

Zoro considers this for a moment and then sticks his tongue out, licking Sanji’s palm and trying to put his tongue between Sanji’s fingers. The prince snatches his hand back with a disgusted ‘ugh!’ sound.

“I’m sorry!” Zoro declares quickly before Sanji makes an irritating noise and leaps for him, smearing his wet hand on Zoro’s face as they topple backwards. Despite the sombre nature of the previous topic Sanji is laughing now as he smushes his hand into Zoro’s cheek. He ends up with Sanji on top of him and when Sanji decides to stop rubbing his hand on Zoro’s face he settles his hands on Sanji’s narrow hips and looks up at him with a smile.

“Do you want to spar? That made you feel better last time.” He offers.

“Hm, no. I think covering you in your own spit was enough.” Sanji says with a grin.

“Think you can go back to sleep?” Zoro asks.

Sanji hums uncertainly and climbs off Zoro, walking to the tent door and peeking outside at the sky.

“It’d take a while to get back to sleep and there’s not much point, there’s only an hour or two until dawn.” Sanji answers with a shake of his head.

“At least get back in bed, it’s cold.” Zoro tells him. Sanji sighs like it’s a big effort and walks over to their bed and climbs in.

“You’re such a baby when it comes to cold weather.” Sanji tells him disparagingly.

“I’ll remind you of that when you start bitching about the heat.” Zoro snorts.

“If Shimotsuki is hotter than that fucking dragon’s mouth when we were in it then I’m entitled to complain. Get in bed already.” Sanji sighs. Zoro hesitates but decides to turn off their lamp and crawl back into bed with Sanji. They get tangled together and start quietly talking about more or less anything, boring shit to do with their journey, how far they think they’re going to travel tomorrow, how limited they’ll be by taking the speed of the cart, or whether they should go ahead without it and let the guy driving it just catch up afterwards. The conversation is needed but hardly interesting so Zoro’s hands start wandering up and down Sanji’s sides under his shirt just for something to do. He’s half listening but mostly just mapping out Sanji’s skin in his mind. It’s only when he hears Sanji’s breath catch that he realises that the blond stopped talking a little while ago and evidently he’s paying far more attention to Zoro’s hands than he was before.

“Uh, I got distracted, sorry. I can stop if you-”

“Don’t stop.” Sanji tells him firmly.

Zoro grins to himself in the dark, he can oblige Sanji in that. After all they’ve got time to kill until dawn, right?

It’s not like it was in the woods, where they were at least a little conscious of the time, now they have nothing to distract them and nothing else that they need to get back to. Maybe it’s because it’s quieter in their tent at night or maybe it’s just the dark enhancing his sense but he can hear every whine, gasp and stifled moan that Sanji makes as clear as anything. Sanji squirms about under Zoro’s attentions though so half of the time he has to keep the royal idiot pinned in place by his hips and that’s long before he puts his mouth to good use. He should probably feel bad about leaving marks on Sanji’s hips from holding him so tight, Sanji probably won’t approve of the bruising. He didn’t complain last time but Zoro doesn’t know if Sanji noticed the extent that they darkened to before he ended up unconscious and getting medical attention. Either way Sanji’s going to have Zoro’s handprints on him for days. He probably won’t tell Sanji about them though.

Still, he really hopes that it wasn’t Sanji crying out his name that woke their nakama up that morning, not that Sanji apologised for it after Zoro swallowed and shushed him. He’s pretty sure that Sanji’s hysterical laughter at Zoro’s reasonable request for a little quiet and subtlety woke the others up if Sanji’s cry before hadn’t done it.

 


	24. Chapter 24

Sanji is starting to think that Zoro might have a point about the weather. For all that Zoro sulked and complained about the cold and the rain in Baratie Sanji thinks that he might be just the same with the heat. They’re fully into Shimotsuki now and it seems that each day the heat gets more oppressive and this isn’t even summer here, just the tail end of it. Sanji could have ended up in this place in late summer if they hadn’t been delayed. If Sanji has to arrive here and that time next year then he may well cut his own throat to delay them.

 

He’s joking of course. Though the closer he gets to Shimotsuki the less sure that he is about that.

 

Usopp seems to feel a little bit hot but not all that much, he’s always handled heat well. Franky is… well Franky’s body isn’t entirely human so Sanji isn’t surprised that he’s not feeling it as much as Sanji is. Sanji however is miserable. They’re only a week out from Shimotsuki when he’s subjected to a day of unreasonably strong sun and finds that large parts of him exposed to the sun go bright red. Chopper talks about sunburn and Sanji certainly agrees on the burn part, everything hurts.

 

Sanji can comfort himself with the fact that Chopper is suffering too, misery loves company after all.

 

Sanji feels a little bad about their group’s decision to leave the caravan to make its own way back, it’ll only take an extra four or five days but Chopper did say it’d be better for Sanji’s health for him to stop riding as soon as possible. After Chopper had said that Zoro sunk his teeth into the idea and wouldn’t let go.

 

“My skin has gone all weird.” Sanji remarks as they dismount from their horses for another night. It’s true, now that the redness has faded his skin has become chaotically patterned with small little dots of darkness, only here and there though.

 

“Your cheeks have it too.” Zoro tells him, pointing to his own cheekbones.

 

“Oh great.” Sanji mutters, rubbing at his cheeks like he could somehow rub them off. He’s not a vain man, not compared to some people that he knows anyway, his cousins for example. All the same he’d really rather that his skin wasn’t patterned with tiny dots.

 

He angrily starts unlatching his bags from seafoam and she looks around at him to see what the fuss is.

 

“They look nice.” Zoro tells him, walking closer and smiling at him.

 

Sanji feels the prickle of embarassment up the back of his neck. Zoro says sweet things sometimes, but either they’re alone when he does or they’re entirely accidental. Outright compliments like this from Zoro make him flustered.

 

“Shame about the face that they’re on.” Zoro adds with a toothy grin.

 

There is is. Embarrassment gone.

 

“You asshole!” Sanji snaps and flings his bag at Zoro’s head. Zoro catches it but is cackling loudly at his own joke, the fucker.

 

“We’re going hunting, someone else can deal with him!” Yosaku declares, leaping from his saddle. His horse has been roped to Kaku’s all day, a job that’s been rotated through all of Zoro’s knights for a day. No one enjoys it except for Nami and Robin, they spend the whole time on either side of Kaku discussing torture, death, the afterlife and frequently to Sanji’s embarrassment they discuss how great he is. He’s overhead them loudly discussing how pretty he is, how good a match he is for Zoro and speculating on his sex life with Zoro loudly. It’s with those two that Kaku looks the most angry.

 

“Make sure you bring something back this time!” Usopp shouts after them. The last time the duo went hunting they managed to only bring two fish back. Sanji thanks his forethought to have made jerky a few days prior, if he hadn’t then Johnny and Yosaku might have been cannibalised by Ace and Luffy.

 

The pair rush off into the woods together and Sanji wonders, not for the first time, what their relationship is. For the life of him he can’t work it out.

 

“I’ll untie him.” Ace offers and walks over to Kaku’s saddle.

 

Sanji notices Zoro tense, the part where they get Kaku on and off of his horse is one of the more risky parts of imprisoning him. Kaku doesn’t kick out like he has tried a few times, Ace goes around the other side of the horse and unties Kaku’s other leg. The man is led off to a nearby tree and tied up again.

 

Sanji watches him and unease coils in his gut. People have been executed in Baratie in his time, sure, but none have ever been executed because of him. Even now with a little distance and time he feels like he doesn’t want his cousin to die, he wasn’t personally responsible for anything. But Kaku was and he will die. Sanji knows that he deserves it, he tried to kill him, but it still doesn’t sit well.

 

“Hey, stop that.” Zoro tells him and Sanji pulls his gaze back from Kaku and from his thoughts.

 

“Stop what?” Sanji asks.

 

“That.” Zoro tells him, catching Sanji’s wrist. He realises that he’d been rubbing his neck at his scar without even thinking about it.

 

“I didn’t notice.” Sanji mutters and pulls out of Zoro’s grasp under the guise of removing Seafoam’s other bag. He hates his scar so fucking much and he really wishes that it just wasn’t there. He’s never going to be rid of it though, is he?

 

Their group sets up tents and Sanji gets a fire going. Sanji has just got his cooking equipment out, less his favourite knife thanks to someone, when he hears the chorus of idiotic laughter that signals the return of Johnny and Yosaku.

 

“We got meat!” They both cry out.

 

“Oh WOW!” Luffy yells, jumping up and down.

 

Sanji turns around and then groans, burying his face in his hands. Johnny and Yosaku are dragging a bear towards them. They drop it right before Sanji with identical self-important grins.

 

It occurs to Sanji that he doesn’t know the word for bear or for half of what he wants to say.

 

“Robin, can I borrow you?” He calls out in Baratian. The translator looks up from where she’s unpacking their cutlery, travel dishes and mugs.

 

“Of course Sanji, how may I help?” Robin asks smoothly, getting up and walking over.

 

“Can you tell them that this is going to take forever to cook because bear meat has to be cooked thoroughly because if it’s even a tiny bit rare then you’ll end up eating the parasites in it that will kill you? Also bear meat tastes awful most of the time. I can work with it but… it’s going to be a while.” Sanji sighs.

 

While Robin explains Sanji sighs and takes out his knife and looks down at the bear, choosing where to start. Thigh is best but shoulder is good as well. He’s learnt to start overestimating what he thinks that it’s possible for their group to eat because Ace and Luffy always rise to the occasion of finishing it all off. At least nothing ever goes to waste around them.

 

He works on the shoulder first and as he cuts into it he hits a major blood vessel from the neck to the shoulder and blood flows over his knife and runs between his fingers. Sanji feels the knife digging into his own neck, his blood coursing over his body and through the gaps in his fingers. Sanji jerks back, nearly dropping his knife as he does so. Of their own accord his gaze whips to Kaku who, for a change, isn’t staring creepily at him but instead has his eyes shut. Sanji tilts his head and feels the way that the scar on his neck moves differently to normal skin.

 

He shakes off the visions of his own near death and returns to dinner, focusing on the task at hand and mentally reciting instructions for cutting meat. He follows the lines of fat and muscle and removes each one precisely, setting them out in the bottom of his largest pot. When the shoulder is stripped he moves onto the thigh and with that he’s able to think a little more clearly.

 

He’s not sure what came over him there, he’s dealt with meat since then. He’s fine. He is.

 

Onions are key he thinks and uses up all of them that they have left from their earlier fortunate haul a few days ago. He goes with a few other herbs, he figures that he’ll treat it like lamb with oregano, thyme and rosemary. It won’t be quite right but it’s better than unflavoured. He rubs the meat in all of them and then throws the bear fat into the bottom of the pot. That at least makes a damn good oil. He’s pretty sure that it’d burn well in lanterns too, maybe he’ll ask Nami if she wants that and if so he can collect it while the rest of their dinner is cooking. He washes his hands twice and then stirs the sizzling bear meat around in the fat a little along with the onions until it’s very lightly done on the outside. Then he throws in a load of water and prepares the boil the fuck out of that bear meat and add vegetables as he goes.

 

To his surprise it turns out a lot better than he had expected and he resolves to write down his methods tonight in his journal. Their group is sat around the fire eating and talking when the subject of the next day comes up.

 

“So we’re, what, two days away?” Zoro asks and Sanji can hear the excitement in his voice.

 

Sanji’s back straightens and his breath catches. He knew that they were getting close but not that close. They’ve passed by towns here and there but Nami is taking them the direct route in the straightest line possible, not the meandering way that roads and towns are spread out. Robin told Sanji that while Nami very much likes her comforts and would prefer a bed to their travel beds for sure, she would also prefer to get back to her own bed rather than have a longer journey and sleep in the beds in inns. Besides, that would cost money, another thing that Nami apparently doesn’t like.

 

“Roughly.” Nami agrees and it takes Sanji a moment to realise that she means that as an approximation rather than a texture, the trail the last few days hasn’t been rough so the statement threw him. Damned language barrier.

 

“Well this is the edge of Ryuma forest, right? You can get us through there and to the castle in two days, right?” Zoro asks.

 

“Actually,” Nami says and swallows the last mouthful of food on her plate, “I think we might be able to do it in a day.”

 

“Really?” Zoro says and Sanji can see the eagerness written on his face.

 

Zoro just wants to go home. He’s no doubt missed his family and his home itself, Sanji knows that he’s missed Shimotsuki, he was able to see the difference in Zoro as soon as the countryside around them changed to that of his country. He can just feel how badly Zoro wants to be there.

 

“It’d be a really long day of riding, we’d have to go at a pretty hard pace as well as getting going really early. I know that Sanji usually starts at dawn but we’d need to be on the road within the hour of dawn breaking. Could we manage to have breakfast and go that quickly Sanji?” Nami asks, looking at him. Their group are all watching him but it’s not them he cares about, it’s the hopeful look on Zoro’s stupid face that grabs at Sanji’s heart.

 

Sanji… doesn’t want to go to there. Kuraigana castle contains Zoro’s family, who might not like him. It’ll be host to Tsukian nobility and though they’re probably nobility for their skills, rather than their breeding like they are in Baratie, they might not like him. There will be staff around who will probably look down on him and whisper about him, goodness knows that the staff in the palace were all aflutter about the ‘scary Tsukians’ who were staying there. The whole thing is alien and filled with uncertainty.

 

But Zoro’s face shows Sanji all that really matters. Zoro wants to go home, he longs to be there. What else does Sanji need to know?

 

“I can do that. I’ll make what I can tonight so it’ll be really quick tomorrow.” He nods. Zoro’s smile shines like the sun, temporarily brightening up the dark fears inside of Sanji.

 

Sanji hasn’t even started washing yet when Zoro comes towards him. Sanji looks up at him as he walks over and sighs. Whenever Sanji has gone to wash things after a meal Zoro has come with him, although he doesn’t bother if it’s someone else’s turn. It’s as if Zoro thinks that it might be cleaning plates that nearly killed him rather than, you know, the knife to the throat. Sanji sighs but doesn’t say anything. Zoro is still a little twitchy about the near death thing and if this makes him feel better then Sanji can allow him this small thing. He doesn’t even know if Zoro is thinking about it or if it’s just some weird washing dishes instinct that he has now.

 

“So, tomorrow huh?” Zoro asks, kneeling down.

 

“Tomorrow.” Sanji agrees. He rinses the plate and throws a cloth at Zoro.

 

“Be useful and dry.” He tells him and hands the plate.

 

It’s a tiny stream that he’s washing in so there’s not really even any room for him to demand that Zoro help wash. It’s easier this way.

 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what it is you’re asking me to do. I don’t understand your strange language.” Zoro says with a shrug and a smug little grin on his face. Sanji feels his eye twitch in annoyance.

 

“Hey Zoro, you’ve got something on your face.” Sanji says and for a moment Zoro actually buys it. By the time Zoro realises it was a trick Sanji has smacked his wet hand into Zoro’s face with a splat noise.

 

“I hate you!” Zoro cries and smacks Sanji in the head with the drying cloth.

 

“No you don’t, you love me.” Sanji tells him with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Zoro purses his lips at that and says nothing. Sanji counts that as a win. He definitely counts it as a win when Zoro actually starts drying the dishes.

 

“After this whole trip no one in Shimotsuki has any right to think that you’re anything but as strong as you are. You know that, right?” Zoro tells him sincerely.

 

Sanji doesn’t want to call Zoro a liar because Zoro isn’t lying, not as far as he thinks anyway. But people don’t work like that, they have ideas and prejudices about people because of where they come from, goodness knows that Sanji did when Zoro first got to Baratie. There’s no way that people in Shimotsuki will be any different. Short of fighting anyone who thinks differently to prove them wrong, and he knows how well that turned out last time, there’s nothing that he can do to change people’s minds. They’ll either decide to like him or not all on their own.

 

“Zoro…” Sanji asks uncertainly.

 

“Hm?” Zoro grunts in acknowledgement of Sanji. How the fuck Sanji has started being able to differentiate between Zoro’s wide variety of grunts, hums and snorts and put meaning to them he doesn’t know. He’s not fluent in Tsukian yet but he’s pretty sure that he is fluent in Zoro noises. Though he supposes that there’s a bunch that he’s not managed to coax out of Zoro yet. Well… sooner or later he’ll hear those ones.

 

He’s getting distracted.

 

“Even… even if everyone else hates me it won’t change how you feel about me, right?” He asks uneasily. It’s still weird to him, being this open with someone. It’s not how he was raised. He and Zeff rarely discuss their feelings and even when they do it’s in the form of some argument like the kind they had before Sanji left. He would talk to Usopp or Franky about his feelings but usually it would be about a problem he was having. Simply talking about him being worried about something isn’t something he does with anyone else. He can kind of see how it’s a knowing someone thing. He hopes Zoro doesn’t mind him blurring the lines like this so much.

 

“Nothing could. I kn-” Zoro cuts himself off with a shake of his head.

 

“I can’t imagine that anyone who’s opinion matters is going to hate you. You… might have a problem with my father the King though.” Zoro admits.

 

“What?” Sanji asks, his grip on the pan in his hand going tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

 

“He’s a pretty- kind of man, he-” Zoro starts.

 

“Wait, I didn’t get that bit. What kind of man?” Sanji asks, that word sounded important.

 

“Stoic.” Zoro says.

 

“Stoic?” Sanji repeats uncertainly.

 

“It means that he’s… he’s hard to read. He looks at everything like it’s a waste of his time. Or at least that’s how his face makes him look. You might think that he doesn’t like you when you talk to him, but that’s just how he is.” Zoro says.

 

“Oh. Even with you?” Sanji asks warily.

 

“A little less with me I guess, but that mostly changes when I get on his nerves, then he just looks fed up with me.” Zoro snorts in amusement.

 

“He will like you though, I know that. You’re the kind of person that he likes. You’re strong, you don’t take no for an answer and you’re actually kind of funny sometimes.” Zoro starts to look a little unsettled.

 

“Actually I think you’re really his kind of person…” Zoro adds looking a little horrified at whatever thought is rolling through his head.

 

“Uh… what?” Sanji questions uneasily.

 

“Nothing. You don’t have to worry about either of my parents or anyone else. And you already know all of my nakama, well, you’re nakama with them too! And you know a few of my friends too. You’ll be fine. Anyway, your cousins didn’t like me.” Zoro points out.

 

“Yeah, but neither of those two like me either. Plus, Conis likes you and you never met Duval and he’s okay, I guess.” Sanji adds unhappily. Duval is the least awful of the three brothers but that’s not exactly high praise. Cavendish swung wildly from decent albeit self-absorbed to downright intolerable and Absalom was always shit. Duval by comparison was merely annoying, he had a good heart though. The two of them had fought massively as kids and Sanji had rearranged his face repeatedly after kicking him and though it got him into no end of trouble with Zeff it oddly made them closer together.

 

“You’ll be fine.” Zoro says, bringing Sanji back on track.

 

“You’re being awfully nice.” Sanji mutters, shaking the water off of his hands as he gives the last bit of washing up to Zoro to dry off.

 

“Got to keep you on your toes.” Zoro tells him with a grin and flicks the damp washcloth at Sanji’s face with a damp slap.

 

“I am going to drown you in this stream.” Sanji growls.

 

Zoro pointedly looks at the little spring of water and the tiny stream that’s only a few inches deep and then back up at Sanji.

 

“I am very dedicated to the idea. Now come here and let me drown you.” he says.

 

“Hm, I’ll pass.” Zoro snorts and stands up with his arms full of the clean and dry crockery and cooking equipment. Sanji jumps over the small stream and collects the rest.

 

“Honestly, I ask you for one little thing and you won’t do it.” Sanji sighs dramatically.

 

“I don’t know how I sleep at night.” Zoro says flatly, and at least they’re talking in Tsukian because Zoro is still terminally unable to grasp sarcasm in Baratian.

 

“I do. Like this.” Sanji says and then splays his arms out, sticks his tongue out and does an impression that sounds somewhere between snoring and choking. It’s a lie of course, Zoro looks disturbingly angelic when he sleeps, his perma-frown fades and with his long dark green lashes fanned out against his skin he looks almost… pretty. His mouth always goes soft with his lips slightly parted and his arm is always around Sanji’s back as Zoro holds him close, the whole thing makes Sanji’s heart soar.

 

Zoro doesn’t need to know that though.

 

“You’re an ass, why do I even talk to you?” Zoro grumbles and kicks him in the side of the knee. Sanji kicks him back in the hamstring and makes Zoro stumble slightly. He could drop him to the floor but Zoro is holding almost all of the clean things so that’d be a shame.

 

“Well… I can think of one reason that you talk to me…” Sanji says suggestively and licks his lip slowly and obviously lets his gaze drop below Zoro’s belt. From the choked sound that comes from Zoro’s throat the prince certainly gets his meaning. Sanji laughs wildly as they enter the warm circle of light around the fire and their camp.

  
  


That night Sanji flails awake, scrambling up and then staring into the darkness in confusion. Zoro’s hand tenses on Sanji’s hip.

 

“Sanji? Are you- was it that memory again?” Zoro asks, his voice filled with concern.

 

“No, no, it’s fine.” Sanji assures him, rubbing his eyes in the darkness as he tries to shake the dream away from him. He hears Zoro flop back onto their bed with a tired sigh.

 

“What was it then?” Zoro asks with a yawn.

 

“Nothing, I just had the strangest dream.” Sanji answers, scratching his head sleepily. He’s kind of thirsty. He climbs over Zoro and feels around in the dark for their water flask.

 

“Really? What- tell me about it.” Zoro says, his tone sounding both excited and serious.

 

“It was just a dream Zoro, calm down.” Sanji sighs and ah- he’s found the water flask!

 

“Tell me.” Zoro insists as Sanji takes his first sip.

 

“It was just weird is all.” He answers with a shrug that Zoro can’t see in the dark. He swallows again. Somehow Sanji can sense that Zoro’s silence is rather pointedly waiting for him to continue. Sanji sighs and starts to explain.

 

“I was in the kitchen at the palace- back home in Baratie I mean, and I kept trying to find things. I was going to cook but then I couldn’t find my knife, so I went off and found it but when I came back I didn’t have any spices so I went off to find them. Every time I got back something was missing and I started to get more and more panicked about it and everyone was staring at me because I was supposed to be cooking and just- it was really weird and stressful is all.” Sanji answers with a frown.

 

“Oh. That’s a shit dream. I thought it was something else.” Zoro says, sounding annoyed.

 

“You fucking asked, Zoro!” Sanji snaps and climbs back over Zoro to get back into his place ‘accidentally’ elbowing Zoro in the stomach as he does so.

 

“So… you’re dreaming again then.” Zoro says in the darkness.

 

“Obviously. Ever since I had… had that nightmare I’ve been dreaming. I think, anyway. I don’t really remember them much after I wake up and then within a few minutes I couldn’t tell you what it was about. Why, was Chopper asking about it?” Sanji questions, settling against Zoro’s side again.

 

“Just go back to sleep.” Zoro mutters, curling his arm around Sanji’s back as Sanji wraps his arm around Zoro’s middle. Sanji nods and sighs, he’s still sleepy even though he’s awake now. Zoro seems wide awake though and Sanji feels a little bad for waking him. Oddly when Sanji falls asleep he can tell that Zoro is still awake, usually when Zoro wants to sleep he’s out like a light in mere minutes. He’s probably just excited about getting home.

  
  
  


The next morning they get going on time thanks to the quickest breakfast that Sanji has served in their entire journey. Thankfully Sanji had made bread the night before, it was flatbread of course (oh how he longs for an oven again) and it used up the last of their flour but it was worth it. Sanji had kept it in his and Zoro’s tent and breakfast for all of them consisted of slices of slow cooked bear meat that Sanji had set going last night, it was supplemented with fresh fruit and enjoyed by all.

 

Breakfast for Kaku consisted of a slice of meat slapped between bread and stuffed in his mouth and then left while everyone set about packing up. It meant that Kaku had to throw his head back and eat like some kind of gannet which is a sight that Sanji will carry with him to the grave, laughing the whole way there.

 

It’s raining as they navigate the forest, something that Sanji is personally grateful for, the rain is better than the ever present heat and he knows that he’s not the only one who thinks so. Chopper is walking alongside Sanji and Seafoam as they weave through the trees.

 

“This must feel as hot for you as it does for me, right?” Sanji asks Chopper in Baratian. He’s in his most deer like form, Chopper’s shifting forms had startled Sanji at first but now he’s used to them. Chopper calls this one his ‘walk point’ which sounds really odd to Sanji but he’s not going to say anything about it.

 

“Hotter probably.” Chopper sighs. Guilt worries away inside of Sanji.

 

“I feel bad that I made you leave Drum just so that I could get out of there.” He says quietly. Chopper looks up at him, his blue nose twitching slightly.

 

“Don’t, Kureha was right, I should go and study in other places. Besides, if I wasn’t here you’d probably be dead by now.” Chopper tells him.

 

“What? No, I would have been fine.” Sanji says, waving a hand as if to waft the idea away.

 

“Oh, really? And that fever you still had for the first few days was nothing, huh? And those antibiotics that you only finished last week, you’d have been fine without them huh? Not to mention the pain medication for the first few days and the supplements you had to take for the first two weeks, you didn’t need those either?” Chopper asks, tilting his head and fixing Sanji with an unimpressed stare.

 

“I would have been fine. I’d just, you know… walk it off.” Sanji mutters.

 

“Walked into your grave more like! Just listen to your doctor in future you royal asshole!” Chopper yells at him.

 

“Chopper! Did you just call Sanji a royal asshole?” Zoro’s voice calls back from near the front of their group. They’re having to ride in more or less single file through the forest.

 

Chopper looks scared and ducks his head in what Sanji presumes to be shame.

 

“I- I- I did.” Chopper answers hesitantly.

 

For a moment Sanji thinks that Zoro didn’t hear but that illusion is broken when he hears Zoro’s faint laughter get louder.

 

“Good job Chopper! Keep it up!” Zoro laughs loudly.

 

“I hate you!” Sanji shouts forward at him.

 

“You too!” Zoro returns just as loud. Sanji tips his head back and groans in loud and obvious frustration. Zoro’s laughter grows.

 

“What are they talking about?” Luffy asks from slightly behind Zoro, their conversation is in Tsukian as opposed to the Baratian that Chopper, Sanji and Zoro’s whole exchange had been in.

 

“I’m pretty sure that they’re just being idiots.” Nami sighs and Sanji winces, he doesn’t want Nami to think that he’s an idiot.

 

“That’s more or less accurate.” Robin confirms and Sanji leans forward in his saddle and buries his face in Seafoam’s neck and whines. Seafoam wuffles her nose at him curiously and Sanji pats her neck, at least someone loves him.

 

Sanji sighs and looks up at the leaves above him. He’s never seen a forest like this before. The trees are tall and their bark is strange, not like the evergreen pines and firs from back home. These are tall and slender with peculiarly shaped leaves, they look like they’ve been there a long time from their height at least. Sanji wonders how old this forest is. At a lower level there are strange flowers growing here and there, bushes and other small plants that Sanji doesn’t recognise. It’s all very nice but Sanji can’t help but feel an unsettling otherness about the place. Did Zoro feel all of this when he was in Baratie?

 

They eat on the move and though Sanji doesn’t see Kaku being fed as he’s far closer to the front than Sanji is he knows that he will be, Zoro wouldn’t stand for it to be otherwise. By evening Sanji is starting to get hungry and he’s surprised that no one else has considered stopping, he only realises why when they crest the hill and Sanji looks down to see bright lights spread out in the valley below and light coming from a large structure on the other hill that Sanji can’t make out in the darkness but would bet is the castle. They’re here.

 

Sanji sees Zoro’s excited face face and their whole group speeds up, going quickly down into the valley and up the other side. People in the village around the castle wave at them as they spot who their group is. Sanji notices that they don’t have marks on them for the most part, he supposes that there’s no big event at the moment, though maybe their arrival will be a big enough one to merit that. The people range in appearance from each other of course, but for the most part they have the darker skin tone of Robin, Usopp and Zoro. Some of them look a little closer to Johnny and Yosaku in appearance such as hairstyles and build. He can see now though that Nami looks different from a lot of the people they pass, but not so different as him. Pale skin and blonde hair make him stand out from the crowd in a way that makes him feel really uncomfortable, people look at Zoro and their group as they pass by but Sanji sees all their eyes stick on him and stay there when they spot him. Of course Sanji isn’t the only one stared at, the galloping reindeer draws more than a few glances and even in Baratie Franky used to get stared at by people who weren’t used to him. He wonders if Tsukians are going to think that Baratie is full of weirdos like them. Well… they’re not entirely wrong.

 

As the sound of hooves on the castle path cobblestones rings in Sanji’s ears he reminds himself what Zoro said, that his father will probably like him, even if it won’t show on his face. It’ll be fine. It’s normal to be nervous when meeting your husband’s family for the first time, plus being in a new country for the first time. He’s fine. It’s fine. He should probably stop using the word fine. They pull their horses into the stables and climb off.

 

“Oh my back. I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed again tonight.” Nami sighs, her hands on her lower back as she leans back a little and stretches.

 

“I couldn’t agree more.” Robin says with a nod.

 

“Hey, Zoro, you want to get out here.” Johnny says, peering around the stable door. Zoro walks out and Sanji follows him.

 

Walking towards them is a tall man with severe features, sharp eyes and slightly elaborate facial hair. His clothes are clearly well made and stylish, even though the style is incredibly different to the styles of Baratie. He’s wearing a cloak that flows behind him as he walks. Perhaps the most noticeable thing though is the giant sword strapped to the man’s back, and Sanji had thought that Zoro was overdoing it with three swords but considering the size of the King’s sword Zoro seems almost conservative. That sword has to be almost as long as Sanji is tall. Between his intimidating appearance, the darkness and the ominous looking castle behind him the whole thing feels like something out of a horror story.

 

“Father.” Zoro says formally, though Sanji can hear that he’s pleased to see him.

 

“Zoro. And… Prince Sanji I presume.” The King says, looking over Zoro’s shoulder at him.

 

“Yes your highness.” Sanji says quickly, bowing.

 

“Please, call me Mihawk. I trust your journey was well.” He says looking at both of them. Sanji raises his eyebrows and looks at Zoro.

 

“Not so much. One second,” Zoro says and leans into the stables.

 

“Johnny, Luffy take Kaku to the dungeon. Wait… where is Luffy?” Zoro asks, looking around. Sanji frowns and looks into the stable as well. He can’t see him anywhere.

 

“I don’t know, I swear he was here a moment ago. It’s like he just ran off.” Usopp answers with a shrug.

 

“Why would- wait… that means, oh!” Zoro gasps, his face splitting into a broad smile as he spins on the spot. He dashes off and, as Sanji turns to see, Zoro bodily hits another man in a cape and wraps his arms around the man.

 

“Dad!” Zoro cries out in joy.

 

“Whoa, hey, what’s with the big hello? You’ve not been this excited to see me since you were nine.” The man laughs and rubs Zoro’s hair.

 

“It’s been nearly a YEAR!” Zoro says loudly and laughs.

 

“Eleven months!” The red haired man laughs.

 

“Did you bring me anything cool?” Zoro asks, sounding eager. Sanji is fascinated, Zoro seems so different with him.

 

“Great. Shanks and Zoro in the castle at the same time, I won’t be able to hear myself think.” Mihawk says with a quiet sigh.

 

Sanji looks up at the man and now that he’s closer and in the light of the stables he can see a thick banded tattoo running around his throat, the top of it just under his adam’s apple. The design and the detail is very fine, there’s something in a circle just above the hollow of his throat but with the way his head is turned to the right to look at the pair he can’t quite make out what it is.

 

He should say something.

 

“Are… are they always like this?” Sanji asks, focusing incredibly hard on making his Tsukian sound perfect.

 

“Unfortunately yes. Though they’ve been apart longer than usual.” The King nods. Sanji smiles, he’s having a conversation with the King and it’s actually going well. Zoro’s right, he had nothing to worry about. He can see what Zoro means though, his voice is very flat and sounds displeased. He’d actually make a good Baratian speaker with a natural neutral level of voice. His body language is pretty standoffish too, his arms folded and his eyes narrowed. Sanji can’t tell if the King is disapproving or if that’s just his normal stance or perhaps both.

 

“I thought I’d help instead. Dungeon, then?” Yosaku says, holding Kaku on the other side of the originally requested Johnny.

 

“I guess so, that’s what Zoro said.” Sanji nods. The two of them nod, bow awkwardly to the King with Kaku in the middle and then drag him away.

 

“I’ll go with. It’s good to see you again Mihawk.” Nami adds, bowing at Mihawk and then following the three men, her staff drawn and twirling around her hand.

 

Mihawk looks at Sanji and raises one sculpted eyebrow.

 

“It’s… a long story. I think Zoro would be better at explaining it.” Sanji says uneasily. That’s quite a stare that Mihawk has and Sanji is used to staring Zeff down, a feat most mere mortals would struggle with.

 

“What would I be better at explaining?” Zoro asks, coming back to the two of them. This time the man with Zoro is a little closer and Sanji can see him better. He’s got bright red hair, though Sanji can’t place if it’s natural or magical, and he can see Zoro’s eye shape and jawline on the man. Though obviously Zoro doesn’t have the triple scars along his eye that his dad seems to. Looking between him and the King he can see Zoro’s features shared between them.

 

“The reason why one of your knights was just dragged off to the dungeon.” Mihawk answers flatly.

 

“Yes, that’s a long story.” Zoro sighs. He supposes that Zoro has a lot of explaining to do about how one of his personally selected knights betrayed him, nearly killed the prince of another kingdom and almost broke an alliance. He hopes Zoro isn’t going to be in trouble for that.

 

“But first, Sanji, I’d like you to meet Shanks, he’s my dad.” Zoro says brightly.

 

Sanji looks at the man, Shanks, properly. Now that he’s in the light of the stable too he can see a similar tattoo around the man’s neck. In a circle in the centre below his adam’s apple is a bird of some kind with its wings spread. He’s smiling, though it doesn’t look like Zoro’s smile, perhaps Zoro’s smile is more like Mihawk’s. He’s looking forward to finding out.

 

“It’s an honour to meet you.” Sanji says sincerely, bowing deeply. From what Zoro said he hadn’t expected to meet both of Zoro’s parents at once. Zoro never said why and was pretty casual about it, all he knows is that the two of them aren’t married. He didn’t even know the man’s name until now.

 

“It was Sanji, wasn’t it?” Shanks asks, glancing at Zoro.

 

“Oh shit, yeah. Sorry. This is Sanji, prince of Baratie and my husband. Uh, that last part was obvious.” Zoro trails off in an embarrassed mutter. Sanji grins, there’s nothing more fun than seeing Zoro flustered, it’s not something he sees a lot so he cherishes it when he does.

 

“Very well, in that case then…” Shanks says, reaching out and setting his hand on Sanji’s shoulder and grasping it firmly.

 

“I want to say that I consider you the very worst thing that has happened to my son ever. I hate you and everything you represent.” Shanks states with a smile on his face but a distinct threatening coldness in his eyes.

 

Sanji’s heart stops. What… what has he done? Zoro said that… that this wouldn’t happen. Why does he…

 

“That’s not funny!” Zoro snaps angrily.

 

He hates him? Why?

 

“Good, I’m not joking!” Shanks says brightly and releases his grip on Sanji’s shoulder with a shove that forces Sanji to take a step back or else fall onto his ass.

 

“Shanks.” Mihawk says sharply.

 

“Mihawk.” Shanks replies, looking him straight in the eye.

 

“Shanks, don’t-” Mihawk starts to say but Shanks shakes his head.

 

“Don’t care. Of all the mistakes you’ve ever made, this is the worst.” Shanks says and waves his hand in Sanji’s direction. With that said he turns and walks back into the castle with a flutter of his cape in the wind.

 

Sanji hadn’t even made it through the castle gates before someone hated him, not just disliked but actively, sincerely hated him. Sanji’s hands clench against the fabric of his trousers, it’s either that or show everyone just how much they’re shaking.

 

“What the FUCK Dad?! You can’t just-” Zoro snarls, turning around and drawing his sword.

 

“Zoro, stop.” the King says firmly. Zoro halts in his tracks but glares up at his father.

 

“Do something! You can’t just let him talk to Sanji like that! I’m gonna-” Zoro shouts but Mihawk glares at him.

 

“Do I need to repeat myself?” Mihawk says pointedly and Zoro shuts up but Sanji can actually hear him growling with rage. His whole body is tense and his hand is still on his swords, it takes a withering glare from Mihawk to make him release them.

 

“Prince Sanji, I do apologise for that. Please don’t think that you are anything less than welcome here. It’s late and I’m afraid it’s past the time of our evening meal, I’ll have food sent up to the rooms of all of you. There is a room prepared for you or will you be staying in Zoro’s room? I don’t mind either way, we just need to know where to send your things.” Mihawk says, gesturing to several servants lingering behind him, all looking intimidated by the exchange that just happened.

 

“U-uh, I… I’m staying with Zoro.” Sanji answers unevenly, his Tsukian failing him for a moment.

 

“Very well.” Mihawk nods and the staff behind him rush into action in the stables and Sanji can hear the sound of bags being removed and tack being removed from horses.

 

“You can’t let him say that!” Zoro says, not dropping the subject.

 

“I will speak to my other half Zoro, did you really think that I wouldn’t?” Mihawk responds with an arched eyebrow.

 

“Don’t just talk to him! Make him apologise! Change his mind! He can’t hate Sanji, he doesn’t know him!” Zoro shouts.

 

“Zoro, I can control Shimotsuki or I can control Shanks, I cannot possibly do both. Frankly, I don’t think the second is even possible for anyone.” Mihawk says firmly.

 

“Good night Prince Sanji.” Mihawk says congenially, nodding his head at Sanji.

 

“Goodnight your highness.” Sanji answers somewhat numbly. He remembers at least to bow a little.

 

“Good night Zoro.” he says, looking at his son.

 

Zoro glares up at Mihawk with gritted teeth his hands still in tight fists, Mihawk merely returns his stare and Sanji stands and watches as the two stare each other down. Sanji is momentarily reminded of the way Zoro stared Robin down at the ball, it’s a challenge of swords. It takes a good thirty seconds of unblinking staring before Zoro finally cracks and looks down at the ground.

 

“Good night.” Zoro answers bitterly, nearly spitting the words out.

 

The King turns around with a flutter of his cape that is both dramatic and entirely effortless. He walks up to the castle easily and gracefully. Zoro is tense and watches his father go. When he is out of sight a yell of anger rips from Zoro’s mouth and he punches one of the beams of wood on the outside of the stable so hard that it snaps in half.

 

Sanji doesn’t know what expression is on his face, but the moment that Zoro sees it he cups his palms on either side of Sanji’s face and kisses him deeply.

 

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, I don’t know why he’d say that but he’ll change his mind. When he gets to know you he’ll like you, who wouldn’t?” Zoro says, his lips brushing Sanji’s as he speaks and then chasing them with another quick kiss when he’s done speaking.

 

“My cousins, Kaku, half of the nobles in Baratie and now apparently him.” Sanji answers, stepping back from Zoro. He doesn’t want Zoro’s pity. He just wants to get his stuff and get to Zoro’s room. He can feel the eyes of everyone in the stables on him as he goes back inside and the only thing that he’s glad about is that Kaku wasn’t there to witness that display, no doubt it would have only confirmed his belief that their marriage was the wrong thing to do.

 

Clearly this was a great start.

 

 


	25. Chapter 25

Zoro stands in front of a cluster of the castle guards, he’s already given the same speech to other groups but this one is more or less his last and thankfully close to his room. By the time he gets back the food should be showing up and he and Sanji can eat, talk and go to sleep.

 

“Kaku is no longer a knight, do you understand me? If you see him, you capture him and return him to the dungeon. If you can’t manage to capture him then you are absolutely allowed to kill him, I’d prefer it if he’s caught alive though.” Zoro tells them.

 

“He’s restrained and locked up in the dungeon though?” One of the guards asks him.

 

“Yes. But if you see him, or anyone who shouldn’t be around, trying to sneak into or get near the prince you catch them. Oh but… there’s a tall guy with blue hair and a shorter one with a long nose, they’re his knights so don’t stop them. But it’s important that-”

 

A yell cuts Zoro off. That’s Sanji’s voice, he knows it. The last time he heard it like that he found Sanji bleeding out from an artery. He bursts into a sprint towards his room, drawing his swords as he does so, he can hear the guards behind him doing the same. He slides into his room to see a startled Sanji staring at him and his guards and…

 

“Oh. It’s you.” Zoro groans and sheathes his weapons.

 

“I see your manners didn’t improve while you were away.” Perona tuts and flips a thick lock of pink hair behind her shoulder.

 

“Why are you here?” Zoro asks and turns briefly to wave at his guards so that they all go back to their posts. Two of them stay outside the door on either side as they are supposed to.

 

“I live here.” Perona says snootily.

 

“I know THAT! Why are you HERE, in my room?” He snarls at her.

 

“I thought I would introduce myself to your husband, I guess I startled him when I came in though.” Perona says, looking at Sanji who is now watching the two of them with interest and with none of the alarm on his face that he had when Zoro and a good deal of the castle guards burst in trying to apprehend an attacker that didn’t exist.

 

“Did you fly through the wall again?” Zoro asks, rubbing his hands over his face. He already knows the answer to that question, but he has to ask.

 

“Yeah, I… wasn’t expecting anyone to do that.” Sanji answers instead.

 

“Oh your Tsukian is really good!” Perona gasps gleefully and Zoro watches as Sanji lights up in joy. One of Sanji’s biggest worries was that people wouldn’t understand him properly here, so to be told that his Tsukian is good right away is great. He just wishes that Sanji’s other fear about people not liking him hadn’t come true.

 

“Thank you!” Sanji replies brightly.

 

“I’m Prince Sanji, I didn’t catch your name, I’m sorry.” Sanji apologises.

 

“No need to apologise. I am Perona.” She tells him and curtsies, Sanji bows in return.

 

“We’re not related before you ask.” Zoro says and Sanji raises an eyebrow at him. Or both, it’s hard to tell with his hair like that. Stupid hair.

 

“Thank goodness. Who’d want to be related to you?” Perona says huffily and Zoro reconsiders his position on not stabbing her.

 

“We grew up together, that’s all. She’s kind of royalty. Sort of. Just not our royalty.” he tells Sanji.

 

“Oh? Where are you from?” Sanji questions her and Zoro looks around the room and grabs one of their bags at random and starts to unpack.

 

“I’m the Princess of Raijin.” She says with some flair. Zoro pauses and frowns, his hand stilled on the buckle of the main part of the bag.

 

“Aren’t you technically queen, considering as you’re the only royal family left alive?” Zoro says and he sees Sanji give him a scandalised ‘how are you so insensitive?!’ look, but Sanji doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

 

“I guess, but Princess of Raijin sounds cuter.” Perona says with a thoughtful hum as she twirls a long candy pink lock of hair around her finger.

 

“That’s not how that works.” Zoro sighs.

 

“Well who cares? The only people who’d call me that are either dead or Tsukian now, so I can call myself whatever I like.” she says pompously.

 

“Can I call you whatever I like? Cause I’ve got a few things I can think- oh no, no, no!” Zoro dives out of the way of one of her ghosts and scrambles backwards from another.

 

“Alright, alright! I’m sorry!” Zoro shouts at her, eyeballing the ghost still hovering threateningly close. It’s horrid pink tongue is sticking out, its mouth curved into a blank smile.

 

“What is…” Sanji starts but trails off, looking between them in confusion.

 

“If you’re really sorry, then say ‘I’m so sorry Princess Perona, the most wonderful of all royalty, for I Roronoa Zoro am but a worthless worm at the feet of your very cute boots’. Say it.” Perona smirks nastily at him.

 

Zoro looks at the ghost with its stupid pink tongue and then at her smug face.

 

“Death first!” He shouts and the ghost flies through him.

 

It’s hard to describe what the feeling of Perona’s ghosts is like. It feels like the hollow feeling after vomiting, it feels like everyone believing all of the worst things about him, it feels like he’s the worst thing to happen to everyone else. It physically hurts too but that’s small in comparison to the emotional result. Zoro clutches at his gut as he sits up and notes bleakly that it’s still not as bad as he felt when Sanji was dying.

 

“What did you do? Zoro, Zoro are you okay?” Sanji asks in alarm, coming closer to him and crouching down. Zoro shoves aside the wave of crushing hopelessness, the fear that Sanji will decide that he’s not good enough for him. They’re not his thoughts, not really, they’re Perona’s damn devil’s fruit power worming into his mind and turning everything black.

 

“I’m fine, I’m used to it. It’s her fucking Devil’s Fruit Power.” Zoro mutters, getting to his feet.

 

“Aaaah, I missed seeing you like that.” Perona sighs happily, still floating in the air.

 

“I’m trying to remember why I wanted to come home again.” He mutters irritably.

 

“Because you missed me and your family of course. Oh! Did you see that Shanks is here? I don’t know if he’s off somewhere tonight or what, but he is back!” Perona says delightedly and Zoro feels the anger flash hot inside him and burn brighter when he sees the way that Sanji crosses his arms around his chest and holds himself as if to give himself some measure of comfort.

 

“What was that all about?” She asks looking between them with genuine concern on her face.

 

“I’m aware that he’s here.” Zoro grits out and moves back to the bag that he was supposed to be unpacking and opens it, still fuming. If he focuses on this then maybe he won’t feel the need to punch a hole in the wall.

 

“It’s fine Zoro.” Sanji says quietly.

 

“It’s NOT FINE!” He snarls, turning around on his heel and glaring at Sanji.

 

“What isn’t fine?! What’s going on?” Perona demands, waving her arm in between them like a referee at a match.

 

“Shanks just- he said- AUGH!” Zoro snarls, he’s so angry that he wants to break everything. He wants to storm across the castle and demand to know what the fuck he thought he was doing by saying that. His dad never acts like this to people unless he’s been given a REALLY good reason, so never to a stranger like Sanji. Out of his parents his dad is definitely the more easy going one, he’s a friendly and happy person who always seemed to have warmth for everyone unless they really don’t deserve it. Or unless they’re Sanji.

 

The only reason that Zoro isn’t over there right now is that his father forbade him from doing anything. He’s shaking with rage and Sanji, his Sanji who he knows, he feels hurt and his worst fear about being here came true and now Zoro is banned from doing anything about it.

 

“Shanks doesn’t like me.” Sanji says in explanation.

 

“He said worse than that. He said he hates you!” Zoro snarls at the ground.

 

“Yeah. I remember, thanks.” Sanji’s voice is flat and when Zoro looks up he can still see the after images of hurt on Sanji’s face and in the way he’s holding his body.

 

“I wasn’t trying to-” Zoro tries to say. He didn’t mean to remind Sanji of it, he’s just too angry about it to couch this in euphemisms and soft language. It feels like a lie. But maybe Sanij was trying to be respectful of the man, or trying to distance himself from that pain only to have Zoro shove it back in his face again.

 

“Mmm, I hate to say it but that explains a lot.” Perona says and Zoro looks at her in disbelief. Her thin eyebrows are pinched together and her red lips are pressed into a thin line. She’s running her hands through one long section of hair in a way that Zoro knows she only does when she’s uneasy.

 

“Oh, I’m not saying that I agree Prince Sanji, it’s just he’s been strange all week. I just assumed it was because he was annoyed that he came back and you weren’t here and he was burning his time here without you, you know he misses you when he’s away.” Perona explains, looking at Sanji briefly to reassure him.

 

“Have they been fighting?” Zoro asks worriedly.

 

“If they have then I haven’t seen them.” Perona answers. His parents don’t fight, or barely ever. They disagree but usually they’re okay with not agreeing on things or they compromise. If they do fight then they do it in private. Zoro is distinctly ill at ease with the idea that he and Sanji might be the cause of them fighting.

 

There’s a knock on the door and Perona is actually the one to tell whoever it is on the other side to come in, even though it’s not her damn room! It’s a man on the kitchen staff carrying a tray of food. He sets it down on the table, bows deeply, and then leaves.

 

“I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll see you both tomorrow, bye!” Perona calls and floats out through the wall again, no doubt to terrify some other person, most likely a guard. Perona has lived here almost all of her life and yet she’s still able to scare people with her behaviour, something that she’s endlessly pleased about.

 

Zoro looks at Sanji and wants to bring up what Shanks said again, but what else is there to say right now? He can’t do anything about it now and Sanji is aware how angry he is about it. Maybe he should just let it go for now.

 

“You never told me about her.” Sanji remarks lightly and looks at the tray of food. It’s all cold things, mostly fruit and cold meats, but there’s some rice balls there too. Zoro snags one and eats it, it feels like forever since he’s eaten one.

 

“You never asked.” Zoro says simply and Sanji sighs deeply and stares at the ceiling for a few seconds, though Zoro had no idea why, he has a perfectly legitimate point.

 

“Oh fuck, proper bread made in a proper oven, I could cry.” Sanji sighs happily as he bites into it with vigor.

 

“Do you want me to show you the kitchens tomorrow?” Zoro asks in between mouthfuls of food as he unpacks one of the bags one handed. This is his bag so he pulls out all of his dirty clothes and sets them to the side. When he looks back at Sanji the blond is looking at him with stars in his eyes and a hopeful expression on his face.

 

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He snorts and eats the last bite of his rice ball.

 

“Oh, you should try one of those.” He adds, pointing to the rice balls.

 

“How can you be a prince and so massively uncivilised with your table manners? Stop wiping your hand clean on your leg! Use one of these for crying out loud!” Sanji snaps and hurls a cloth at Zoro’s face.

 

“They need to be washed anyway, what’s the problem?” He argues defensively and Sanji’s whole face seems to spasm with rage.

 

“You. You’re my problem.” Sanji sneers and turns to peer at the rice balls. Their arguing apparently over Sanji inspects them curiously, they don’t have them in Baratie. He picks one up curiously and smells it before taking a small bite and closing his eyes, his dumb eyebrow down in concentration. He makes an interested sound and takes another bite.

 

“Oh! There’s meat in here!” He exclaims, one hand covering his mouth which reminds Zoro that he’s never seen Sanji talk with his mouth full. He chews thoughtfully and then looks at the exposed filling.

 

“That’s chicken, grilled I think and with-” Sanji goes off into Baratian words and phrases that Zoro doesn’t understand. Sanji seems to be mentally dissecting the food and genuinely pleased and excited about it. Zoro decides that he wants to be there when Sanji first starts exploring the castle’s kitchen so that he can see the excitement on his face.

 

Zoro alternates between unpacking and eating. He doesn’t want to sit down and eat because he’s reasonably sure that the moment he stops moving he’s going to pass out. He’ll have to be really careful when he meditates not to edge into sleep. A petulant part of him doesn’t want to meditate tonight and just wants to sleep but after everything that’s happened this evening he really needs to clear his mind or else he won’t sleep well.

 

“I’m gonna unpack your things, okay?” He calls out and Sanji gives him that odd raised thumb signal that means good or okay. Baratians are still weird. It’s not that Tsukians don’t have hand signals but they’re the combat kind like ‘you two that way, I’ll go this way’ or ‘circle around there’ or ‘wait’. He wouldn’t use them normally like this. Weird.

 

He starts unpacking Sanji’s clothes, or the small amount that he carried with him instead of leaving on the cart that’ll be here in a few days time. He’s suddenly unsure about what to do with them. The dirty ones can obviously go into the same laundry bin that he threw his own in. All but about three pieces of Sanji’s clothing are dirty and notably so, enough that Zoro is starting to believe Sanji’s theory that Zoro is deliberately responsible for it somehow. That’s a lie of course, except for that one shirt that’s now got green grass skids up the elbows but it’s Sanji’s own fault for being a smartass and making Zoro shove him down that grass hill.

 

His first reaction is to just put them where he puts his clean clothes, in the wardrobe, but what if there’s another cultural thing? He doesn’t want to make everything worse by falling into that hole too. But he can’t just leave them here on the floor or on the bed, that’s not putting things away and it’ll just annoy Sanji if he finds that. Maybe he can-

 

“Have you fallen asleep standing up or something?” Sanji asks from behind him and Zoro turns to see a slightly disgruntled looking Sanji behind him.

 

“Uh.” Zoro tries and Sanji rolls his eyes before taking his clothes out of Zoro’s hands.

 

“Your clothes are in there, right? Ah, yes, they are.” Sanji says, confirming his own words as he goes by opening Zoro’s wardrobe.

 

“And that’s a problem for tomorrow.” Sanji declares, opening the door and flinging his clothes inside without so much as folding them or hanging them up. In fact they’re probably worse than they were when Zoro had them in his hands. So much for that worry.

 

Sanji looks longingly at Zoro’s double bed, it’s going to feel about a hundred times better than what they’ve been sleeping on lately and it’s not high up like Sanji’s bed or the bed in Drum.

 

“You know if you even touch the bed you’ll fall asleep.” Zoro warns. Sanji pulls an unhappy expression and nods.

 

“Shower?” Sanji asks and Zoro points him in the right direction.

 

Sanji briefly rifles through his bag and then heads off, toothbrush in hand, into the bathroom that ajoins Zoro’s bedroom. The other prince doesn’t shut the door after him and so as Zoro puts the last of their things away he sees Sanji peel off his boots and ditch them on the floor. Zoro should really take his own boots off, he wants to shower after Sanji does. He sits down on the edge of his bed to unbuckle his boots and is treated to the way that Sanji pulls his shirt off with that unusual but captivating cross-armed roll of his body that he does. He’s been watching Sanji get undressed throughout their whole journey, though he usually averts his eyes when Sanji is completely naked though it’s more out of a sense of avoiding frustrating himself. There’s no point getting worked up over Sanji when all the man wants to do is get changed or bathe. He is still captivatingly beautiful and not for the first time Zoro feels like he really ought to thank his father for arranging their marriage. He wonders if Sanji would have agreed to marry him if they had met without any obligation. Considering their language barrier, miscommunications, Sanji’s hostile nature and Zoro’s stubbornness he doubts that they would ever have even been involved with each other, let alone married. He will thank his father. Profusely.

 

“COLD!” Sanji yips, clearly startled. Zoro stifles a laugh in his hand.

 

“Turn the handle the other way.” He calls to the now out of sight Sanji.

 

“I worked that out myself, asshole!” Sanji snarls from inside, his voice echoing off of the tiles. Zoro grins, yeah, they wouldn’t have got this far without a shove from their parents.

 

The thought of his parents, specifically his dad Shanks, sours his mood considerably. He grits his teeth and rubs his hands over his face, as if he can just scrub the frustration off. He doesn’t even know what Sanji’s like, how can he-

 

Zoro needs to meditate.

 

He slides off of the bed and sits barefoot on the floor. He crosses his legs and shuts his eyes. Zoro breathes in deeply through his nose, feels the air filling up his chest and then slowly breathes out. He does that a few times before he lets his breathing go back to normal. He starts to focus on his body muscle by muscle, starting from his feet, up to his legs and eventually getting to his head and the tightness at the back of his neck and the frown etched on his face. He has to chase that off a few times before he stays relaxed. From there he just focuses on his breathing.

 

Irritation at his parents flickers through this mind, momentarily dragging him into the whirl of ‘how dare he’ and ‘why didn’t he stop him saying that’ before Zoro mentally steps back and lets it pass. He accepts that it bothers him but this isn’t a time for finding solutions.

 

The thought comes back a few times more, the others are minor things like physical complaints of tiredness or a few muscle aches or a thought about the food. Before too long though he’s in the smooth timeless plane of true meditation. Eventually he drops out of it and comes back to himself, becoming aware of his body and then the world around him. When he opens his eyes he sees Sanji and realises that it must have been his awareness of him that pulled him out.

 

“Oh, shit. Did I disturb you?” Sanji asks, rubbing a towel against his damp hair.

 

“No, I wanted to shower when you were done anyway.” He says and he can hear the way that his voice has lost the tense edge that it had apparently got without him realising.

 

“Aaaah, ok.” Sanji yawns.

 

Zoro pulls his clothes off sleepily and showers, the warm water melting what little tension in his muscles remained. After that he’s only just awake enough to coordinate his toothbrush into his mouth rather than the side of his face. When he goes back into his bedroom, lit only from the faded glow of lights outside, he’s barely conscious,

 

“Get in bed, I can’t sleep without a pillow.” Sanji tells him.

 

“What? There were pillows there before, I’m sure.” Zoro says with a frown. Does Sanji mean that he can’t sleep on them? That’s unlikely, not unless they’ve been replaced with rocks since Zoro was away, despite appearances Sanji isn’t a fussy man. The only time that Sanji really complained about their bed when they were travelling was when Zoro had accidentally set it down on a rocky or especially lumpy patch of ground. That usually involved arguing and fighting on the floor which sometimes ended with the pair of them without their clothes and Zoro was okay with that, though if Sanji was trying to discourage him from from something then that was a poor way to do it. The point is, Sanji doesn’t complain much about this sort of thing.

 

He kneels on the bed, Sanji had kindly moved the blankets back to let him in. He reaches out in the dim light to feel for a pillow when Sanji’s hand wraps around his wrist and yanks him hard to the side. Zoro hits the mattress shoulder first and Sanji laughs.

 

“Oh hey, there it is. I was wondering where I’d put my pillow.” Sanji snickers and pulls Zoro into place by his arm.

 

“I’m not a pillow! I’m a warrior, a prince and your husband, not… not-” He protests irritably but Sanji’s hand comes up and covers his mouth.

 

“Pillows don’t talk.” Sanji tells him seriously and settles into his habitual place against Zoro’s side. His body curls around Zoro’s own, one long powerful leg draped over one of Zoro’s with the sole of his foot against Zoro’s ankle. His arm is curled over Zoro’s middle and Sanji’s slightly damp hair is fanned out over Zoro’s arm. He can feel the way Sanji’s breathing runs over his skin and the delicate coil of chain from Sanji’s necklace against his chest.

 

“You’re impossible.” He grumbles in a way that is not at all fond, he’s sure. He’s probably not helping his case of being stern when he trails his fingers over Sanji’s back a few times.

 

“I’d bore you if I wasn’t.” Sanji says smartly and Zoro has to concede that he’s right. Sanji sighs softly and Zoro feels his eyelashes flutter closed.

 

Zoro looks at the ceiling and realises that the last time he was in this bed he was unhappily thinking that in the morning he’d have to leave to start a journey to go to a country he’d never been to and marry some awful man he’d never met.

 

Well, now he’s back with the awful man that he married and they are mutually awful to each other and it’s amazing. But more than that he knows the man. He feels the way that Sanji’s breathing has dropped down into the slow rhythm of sleep. He wonders if this is the night that Sanji will have his dream.

  
  


 

 

 

 

“Zoro, Zoro, Zoro! Shh, wake up.” Sanji hisses and Zoro jolts into wakefulness. Sanji quickly covers his mouth with his hand.

 

“Don’t tell the guards that I speak Tsukian.” Sanji whispers urgently in Baratian.

 

“What? Why?” Zoro groans, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He now has a lapful of mischievously smirking Sanji.

 

“Because it’s funny, trust me.” Sanji says and then there’s a knock on their bedroom door.

 

“Prince Zoro. Your father the King has requested yours and your husband’s presence in the old hall for breakfast.” the guard says through the door.

 

“Yes, I’m up. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Zoro calls back in Tsukian.

 

“Off.” he tells Sanji, flicking back to Baratian and shoving the prince off of him.

 

“You need to get dressed.” Sanji tells him, as if Zoro didn’t already know.

 

“No shit. Any why don’t you want them to know that you speak Tsukian? You were worried about people thinking that you couldn’t.” Zoro points out and climbs out of bed, stretching out his back.

 

“It’s not gonna be forever, I’m just amusing myself.” Sanji grins wide and his eyes sparkle deviously. Zoro squints at him suspiciously but decides to drop it as Sanji provides no further explanation on his own.

 

“My dad is probably going to be there at breakfast you know.” Zoro says after a few moments. He pulls his clean shirt for the day over his head and looks at Sanji.

 

“I figured that out myself.” Sanji says with a shrug and fusses with the buckle on one of his boots. How long has he been up and dressed for?

 

Zoro pulls clothes out of his wardrobe and slides into them. He showered before bed so he doesn’t need to do it again now, besides it’s not a good idea to keep his parents waiting. He buckles up some armor both because it’s a good idea but also because it wouldn’t put it past either of his parents to decide to test his reaction speed in an impromptu training match. He really doesn’t want to look like being in Baratie has made him soft.

 

When he looks back at Sanji the blonde is stretched out on the bed face up with his eyes shut and quietly humming some tune that Zoro doesn’t know. He looks totally relaxed. Zoro keeps looking at him as he tugs at his own belt, making sure his swords are secure.

 

“I don’t understand you.” He says eventually.

 

“That’s because you’re stupid.” Sanji responds instantly, his mouth curling up into a grin.

 

“Shut up. I meant that you were panicking about my parents not liking you and he was awful last night and now you look like you don’t care.” Zoro says, squinting at Sanji suspiciously.

 

“Because I don’t care.” Sanji answers, opening his eyes and sitting up.

 

“Bullshit.” Zoro responds and Sanji laughs.

 

“No, look. I want them to like me, ideally I want everyone everywhere to like me. I mean, who wants people to hate them?” Sanji says standing up.

 

“But, that’s not going to happen. So either he’s gonna change his mind on me or he’s not but there’s fuck all that I’m going to do about it. I’m not gonna change who I am for anyone, least of all some guy who hates me. I’m sure as shit not going to pretend to be someone I’m not just to please him. I wish he liked me, but he doesn’t, so that’s that.” Sanji says with a shrug.

 

Zoro’s heart thuds so hard in his chest that he’s surprised that Sanji can’t hear it. Sanji is outright refusing to lie about who he is at all and he’s not tempted to do it and resisting, he’s genuinely not even considering doing that to himself. That is an admirable level of strength and honesty.

 

Zoro reminds himself that he really does have to go to breakfast and can’t in fact drag Sanji into bed just to show him how impressed he is with the man’s inner strength.

 

“What’s that look for?” Sanji asks him suspiciously. Zoro just shakes his head and smiles, walking around the bed and towards the door. The fact that Sanji doesn’t even get why this is impressive makes it better because it is completely genuine. He’s not aiming for a standard, he just is how he is.

 

“Hey, am I talking to myself he-mph!” Sanji is cut off when Zoro kisses him quickly. The stunned and confused look on the blond’s face is enough to make Zoro laugh and the slightly outraged look only makes it better.

 

“Hey! Quit ignoring me already!” Sanji squawks at him as Zoro leaves. Sanji follows him, bothering him in Baratian the whole time with the guards following them at a respectable distance. It would be easy to argue that Zoro doesn’t need to be followed by guards in the castle and often he’s not, but without guards around the place isn’t as safe as it could be and of course the one time that they’re sent away will the the one time that someone gets stabbed by an attacker.

 

“It’s probably going to take me a while to learn my way around. It all looks the same. Like that painting, do you have two of them or...” Sanji pauses and stops walking, looking at the painting of Zoro’s great grandfather and then at Zoro. Zoro is reasonably sure that there isn’t a duplicate of that painting.

 

“You’re… you’re lost.” Sanji says slowly and then bursts out into hysterical laughter. Zoro’s face reddens and he shoves Sanji in the shoulder hard enough to make the cackling man stumble.

 

“I am not! The castle is just… cursed. The hallways move on their own.” Zoro insists and Sanji snorts.

 

“Which way is the quickest route to the old hall again?” One of the guards says to the other.

 

“I think it’s left, isn’t it?” The other replies, studiously not looking at Zoro or Sanji.

 

“Oh no, I just remembered, it’s definitely straight on and right.” The first one answers. Sanji is desperately trying to keep a straight face and pretend that he doesn’t understand the guards attempts at helping without outright helping.

 

“Come on.” Zoro mutters in Baratian and Sanji follows along. It’s barely any time at all before Zoro pushes open the doors to the old hall and the guards stay outside as Zoro and Sanji go in. Already sat at the table talking to each other are Zoro’s parents and the princess, though they all look up when they come in and Zoro gets to see Perona’s smile go catlike when she sees them.

 

“Did you get lost agaiiiiin?” Perona coos at him, her grin devious. It doesn’t help that Shanks sniggers at him openly.

 

“Shut up.” He snaps at her and walks over.

 

The old hall used to be a hall for feasts and celebrations but it’s not used for that so much now as it’s not big enough. Now it’s used for diplomatic meetings or dinners with a relatively small number of people, around twenty. They’re seated at one of the long tables which is where they tend to have breakfast together. Shimotsuki doesn’t revolve around food in the way that Baratie does and it’s not uncommon for them to miss meals together, but breakfast is a good time of day to inform everyone of their individual plans for the day and arrangements for later.

 

Mihawk is at the head of the table, as expected for a King. To his immediate left is Perona and on her side is Shanks. That leaves the other side of the table free for him and Sanji. He sits down out of habit at his father’s right hand but only when Sanji sits next to him does he realise that in doing so he set up the table in a way that his husband and his other father are staring right at each other.

 

“Prince Sanji, good to see you in the light of day rather than the night. How did you sleep?” Zoro’s father asks, his face set in the neutral yet severe expression that he has. Zoro was expecting that to unnerve Sanji like it does so many people but he supposes that a lifetime with Zeff has hardened Sanji to that kind of thing.

 

“Wonderfully, thank you. I’m also looking forward to exploring the castle, though I got to see a fair bit of it on the way here.” Sanji says innocently. Zoro glares at him and Perona smothers a laugh with a cough.

 

“No doubt.” His father says flatly.

 

“And you, Zoro?” He asks.

 

“Ah, well, after sleeping in a tent for a long time it’s far better being in my own bed again.” Zoro acknowledges.

 

“I’m sure.” Mihawk nods and then looks to Perona. Zoro is trying not to notice the scowl on his dad’s face or the way that he’s trying to melt Sanji’s face off with his glare. Zoro has almost never seen him like this.

 

“Oh, pretty well. I introduced myself to Sanji last night when they were unpacking and was so happy to see Zoro again.” She chirps, staring at Zoro and he knows that if he says a word about it that he’ll get a ghost right through the chest. Breakfast will likely be tense enough as is without Perona making him curl up into a ball under the table so he decides to let her win this one.

 

The staff come in with food and Sanji looks curious and excited to see it all, meanwhile Zoro’s dad doesn’t break his glare at Sanji even as food is set before him. There’s no way that Sanji is oblivious to that, he has to just be ignoring it.

 

His father pours the wine for everyone at the table as he lives under the firm belief that everyone else does it wrong. Glasses are passed down the table and Sanji makes a surprised noise at alcohol at this time of day. Sanji sniffs his curiously and then sets it down close to Zoro.

 

“So,” Sanji says slowly and finally meets Shanks’ gaze.

 

“I haven’t started eating yet, so I know there’s not food on my face. Do you want to tell me why you’re staring at me so hard then?” Sanji continues, looking right at Shanks.

 

“Because you shouldn’t be here.” Shanks answers instantly and Sanji raises an eyebrow.

 

“Why, do you want to swap seats?” Sanji asks flatly and it looks like he can do sarcasm in Tsukian after all. Zoro would be proud of him if it wasn’t the worst possible moment for him to be putting this new skill to use.

 

“Yeah, go swap seats with someone in your own country.” his dad says darkly. Perona widens her eyes at Zoro as if she thinks there’s anything that he can do here that’ll help.

 

“Nah. I’m not going anywhere.” Sanji replies with a slight grin creeping onto his face.

 

Shit. Shit! Zoro looks quickly to his father who simply shakes his head minutely and when Zoro opens his mouth to quietly plead for his father to do something the man just raises one finger up at him in a ‘be quiet’ gesture. Zoro looks at Sanji and considers that the outcome of him trying to interrupt Sanji would likely involve Sanji’s foot in his face with the added weight of Mihawk’s irritation at being disobeyed and would therefore be a terrible idea.

 

“You shouldn’t be here, you shouldn’t be married to my son. Marriage is about love, not a lie for power.” Shanks says tersely.

 

“We both agreed to it for the same reason and as it happens I do love him. So, as long as Zoro wants me around, you’re going to have to either accept it or kill me because I’m not going anywhere.” Sanji says and stares hard at the older man. Zoro’s eyes flick to Shanks’ sword at his hip. Normally he’d say there’s no way that the man would kill or maim Sanji, but now he’s not so sure that he wouldn’t try, he’s not sure of anything right now. Well, except for the fact that surely his father would intervene, right?

 

“I didn’t agree to this, I don’t care about your agreement, killing you would solve my problem just fine. Do you really think that I’m not strong enough to kill you? I could end you where you sit!” Shanks says harshly, standing up so suddenly his chair skids behind him on the stone floor. Perona looks at them wide wide eyes and stays utterly silent and still as if she thinks they’ll both turn on her next.

 

Zoro’s hand tracks to his swords, maybe just maybe if he’s quick enough he could slow down Shank’s blade enough for Sanji to leap out of the way. Sanji is fast after all but, Zoro isn’t sure that he could get there in time to buy Sanji enough reaction time to be worth it. Shit, shit, shit. Zoro glances at his father, Mihawk has his eyes firmly fixed on his other half in a particularly dark expression.

 

“Oh, you know what?” Sanji mutters and stands up angrily, planting his hands on the table and leaning forward.

 

“Just try me. You’re not even the first person this month to try to kill me, so either go for it or shut up!” Sanji shouts at him and Shanks snarls and leans in close so the two of them are glaring at each other almost nose to nose. Zoro stares at them, no matter how close the two of them are and how honestly sinister his dad’s expression is Sanji shows no signs of budging. His hands aren’t shaking, he’s not breathing hard, he doesn’t look scared in the slightest.

 

The two men stare at each other, unblinking, for what feels like forever. Then all of a sudden Shanks bursts out laughing and leans back, standing up straight with his one arm around his middle.

 

“Oh, you’ve got guts, I like that.” he laughs, beaming at the utterly bewildered looking Sanji.

 

“I- what?” Sanji says, sounding dazed.

 

“I’m still not happy about you two being married out of a stupid political reason, but you’ve got balls I’ll give you that, and my son seems to care about you if the horrified look on his face is anything to go by. So, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now at least. If you turn out to be bad news then you’ll be a problem for me to get rid of.” Shanks nods.

 

“That’s…” Sanji pauses for a second and then a smile starts to form on his face.

 

“Alright then, that sounds fair enough.” Sanji says with a nod and Shanks grins further.

 

The pair of them both seem to remember the others in the room. Zoro’s parents look at each other and Shanks grins broad and bright while Mihawk gives him a look that suggests that he’s done with Shanks’ shit. It’s the kind of look that usually has people scrambling out of the room but Shanks has been getting it as long as Zoro can remember and it shows zero sign of ruffling him at all. Sanji looks at Zoro and smiles chirpily as if everything is perfectly fine.

 

“Aw, you look worried. Do you care about me or something?” Sanji teases, poking Zoro in the cheek.

 

“No! I hate you both because you’re fucking CRAZY! What is wrong with both of you?” He demands angrily, making Shanks snort laugh and drawing Zoro’s fury.

 

“Since when do you hate people so easily and threaten to kill people? I’ve seen people massively disrespect you and you don’t give a shit about it!” Zoro snarls, remembering when people have even thrown drinks at his dad because they thought his decision not to fight meant that he couldn’t or was scared to.

 

“This isn’t about me Zoro, it’s about you. I don’t care what people try to force me to do but I care when it’s you.” Shanks says, his voice cold and serious again.

 

“I wasn’t forced into anything, just because it wasn’t my idea doesn’t mean that I didn’t get a choice. I knew what I was getting into.” Zoro says. He can’t help but remember when he was standing waiting to go in mere minutes before his wedding with his nerves fried and his heart cold, he knew what he was expecting but he didn’t like it.

 

But it didn’t turn out like that.

 

“Not what you were expecting though, huh?” Sanji says softly and Zoro realises that he’d trailed off there. Zoro looks at his husband, his smart, strong husband who is apparently unreasonably STUPID.

 

“Don’t act like everything is okay! You’ve nearly died once already and you go and dare one of the most powerful men I know to kill you! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! What’s wrong with BOTH of you?!” Zoro shouts at them. Sanji grins broadly at him and his dad just laughs. Zoro hates them both.

 

Zoro looks at his father in bewilderment, hopeful that he can explain some of this utter insanity. Mihawk doesn’t look at all ruffled, rather his face is neutral with an air or apathy. He catches Zoro’s pleading gaze and sighs.

 

“Some marital advice for you Zoro. Sometimes with men like… them, it’s best to just accept that you will never understand them completely and just let them do whatever strange thing they want. I find wine helps.” he says sagely and gestures to Zoro’s glass and then drinks deeply of his down.

 

“Yeah, but you’re not married.” Perona points out, chipping into the conversation now that she’s deemed it safe.

 

“When you know someone the same rules apply.”  Mihawk says with a shrug.

 

“Aw, you say all that like I’m difficult to be with.” Shanks says with a pout. Mihawk says precisely nothing, but maintains unflinching eye contact with Shanks and drinks from his wine glass again. Shanks cracks up into laughter, banging his fist on the table in amusement. Either it’s earlier than Zoro thought or his parents haven’t been back together long because he actually catches the momentary twitch of amusement at the edge of his father’s mouth as he watches Shanks’ antics. Usually he’s got a better poker face than that.

 

“Returning to our previous subject though Prince Sanji, would you care to elaborate on the apparent previous attempt on your life?” Mihawk says smoothly.

 

“Oh, uhm…” Sanji starts hesitantly but Zoro decides to take mercy on his stupid husband and answer instead.

 

“That’s why Kaku is in the dungeon. Someone got to him and turned him against us. He tried to kill Sanji and Sanji only just survived.” Zoro explains and his father’s expression goes dark. He would be right to question how Zoro could let someone like that into his circle of confidence and make him a knight, how he could be that taken in by someone like that. But he says none of that right now.

 

“I see.” His father says gravely, his expression dark.

 

“Does the King of Baratie know?” Shanks asks seriously, all previous amusement dropped.

 

“Yeah, when we got to Drum and to Kureha’s we sent him a message. He arrived when Sanji was waking up. I offered to let him take Kaku and do what he wanted but Zeff said to take him back here and execute him, he was pretty specific about how.” Zoro responds, remembering the look in Zeff’s eyes when they agreed.

 

“But you don’t feel that there’s a risk of war?” Mihawk prompts him and at that Sanji cuts in.

 

“Not at all. My father is a lot of things but he’s no one’s fool. If someone wanted to get one of Zoro’s knights to kill me then the obvious goal would be to bait us into war against each other. He doesn’t want to play into anyone’s hands, I think he’s trying to find out more back home but I think that Kaku is a better place to start, though none of us could get him to talk.” Sanji says, his manner perfectly analytical and his speech perfect.

 

“Any other information?” The King asks, cutting Zoro’s thoughts off.

 

“Hm… oh! Whitebeard sent Ace along for the journey, he said that there might be trouble but Ace told me that he didn’t know what it was. Ace started getting suspicious of Kaku and when he told me of his suspicions Kaku was off elsewhere attacking Sanji. I guess he knew that Ace was onto him and he panicked and took his chance.” Zoro answers, trying to be clear and concise with his answers.

 

“Ah… that’s… not what made him snap.” Sanji mumbles, surprisingly in Baratian rather than the Tsukian that their conversation had been in previously.

 

“Huh?” Zoro says looking at him curiously.

 

“He ah… saw the finger shaped bruises you left on my hips and didn’t like what we’d been doing. He’s obsessed with you, remember?” Sanji mumbles, decidedly not looking at Zoro.

 

Oh.

 

Well, uh…

 

“Heh, hope you two had a good enough time to make that worth it.” Shanks sniggers in… in… Baratian…

 

Zoro stares at him in shock and mounting embarrassment and sees Sanji go as red as his wine.

 

“Since when can you speak Baratian?!” Zoro demands hotly, pointing at his dad to laughs uproariously.

 

“If you want to be technical about it kid, it’s my native language. But I learnt Tsukian around the same time so it’s kind of hard to call.” he says, resting his chin in his palm.

 

“But… but you were born in the Orange Union like Nami, right?” Zoro asks in a daze. Why is nothing making sense this morning, has he entered some kind of alternate universe?

 

“You’re not actually speaking Baratian though.” Sanji says thoughtfully, still in Baratian.

 

“Ah, you have an ear for it then.” Shanks grins.

 

“I wasn’t sure at first because you were talking slower but you’re speaking-” Sanji’s voice starts going faster and as Shanks replies their conversation picks up more and more speed and more of a range in tone than Zoro is used to hearing from regular Baratian. The pair of them are firing bursts of nigh unintelligible speech back and forth at each other and Zoro can only catch the occasional word.

 

“I… don’t understand what they’re saying.” he says quietly to himself, he’d thought that he was getting better at this. Has Sanji just been speaking painfully slowly for him? He doesn’t think so but he can’t understand them and it’s not right.

 

“If the three of you would be so kind as to speak in a language that we all speak that would be wonderful.” Mihawk says flatly and Sanji jolts a little and goes red.

 

“I’m sorry your highness.” Sanji responds quickly and Mihawk raises an eyebrow.

 

“As I said before, please call me Mihawk.” He says and Sanji ducks his head and apologises.

 

“Why did I never know you could speak that?” Zoro asks again, this time in Tsukian.

 

“Well, my family have always travelled around on the sea and on land some too. The Orange Union is just where I happened to be born, or in the waters around it at least. But we’ve always been… there isn’t really a word for it in Tsukian.” Shanks says with a frown.

 

Sanji says a word that Zoro nearly catches and when Sanji sees his expression he repeats himself.

 

“Pirate. He’s a pirate.” Sanji says slowly for him.

 

“A pirate? What is that?” He asks, utterly confused.

 

“It’s more of a state of mind, I’ll explain it to you later kid. But the point is that our hearts have always been on the water, it’s the same for most Baratians. Most of the people you run into on the water are from there, so it’s the language everyone speaks, or some variation of it at least.” his dad explains with a wave of his hand.

 

“It’s also the best language.” Sanji mumbles into his drink, the wine glass not covering his Baratian words. Zoro kicks him in the ankle for that and Sanji shoots him a dark look as if to dare him to do that again. Zoro chooses to not get involved in a kicking war under the table, both because he’ll get in trouble with his father but also because trying to out-kick Sanji won’t end well for him.

 

The table is mostly eating now, with Perona asking Sanji the occasional question, she’s worked out that food is a topic to get Sanji talking on but Zoro can’t help but observe his parents. His father looks more pensive and intense than usual, which is saying something and even Shanks seems to have something on his mind.

 

“The big feast is… when? Four days from now?” Shanks suddenly says, looking at Mihawk.

 

“Yes, to welcome the princes back home. What are you thinking?” He questions, dabbing at his mouth with a napkin.

 

“Whitebeard is a day and a half’s ride from here. I’ll ride out there and see what he knows.” Shanks says with a thoughtful nod.

 

Zoro’s heart sinks. If his dad is headed out already then he might just come back to pass on the message before returning to the sea. He’s only had two encounters with him since he’s been back and neither have been especially pleasant, he doesn’t want to wait another six months or a year before seeing him again.

 

“I’ll be back for the feast.” His dad says with a wide grin and Zoro relaxes a little.

 

“In honesty Shanks, even if you hadn’t intended on it I have long suspected that throwing a large enough feast would summon you through some unknown kind of magic.” Mihawk says dryly and Shanks makes an exaggerated thoughtful noise.

 

“Can’t have you suspecting the truth, I gotta deny it.” He says and this time Zoro does see a quick expression of amusement flash over his father’s face.

 

“You’re all gross, stupid couples.” Perona pouts and collects up some of the last of the food onto her plate and then stands up.

 

“If you’ll excuse me I’m going to somewhere with less idiots.” She says haughtily, standing up.

 

“Fewer idiots, not less. The number will go down with you leaving, I assure you.” Mihawk says dryly and Zoro snorts into his wine glass, nearly inhaling his drink. Perona makes an exaggerated ‘hmph’ noise and flounces out.

 

“With that said, if everyone is done here I need to work on this assassination problem. Zoro, I shall need your navigator to plot the times and places of the attack if this is to be investigated fully.” He says standing up.

 

Zoro rises to his feet as well, he can go and get Nami and then see what Sanji wants to do today. Perhaps he’d like to go to the kitchens.

 

“Prince Sanji, I do hope you enjoy your day. If you have any questions or need anything the staff are at your service. Zoro, come with me.” Mihawk says and Zoro jolts.  That very much implied that Zoro was to come with his father alone, leaving Sanji with Shanks.

 

“Mmph, Hawky, I’m gonna go grab some supplies from the kitchen and then I’ll head out. I’ll see you in a few days.” Shanks says, stuffing half a bread roll in his mouth as he stands up.

 

“I’ll see you then.” Mihawk says with a nod.

 

“Bye.” Shanks says and presses his thumb to the hollow of his own throat, just at the bottom line of his tattoo, and then draws it up over the height of the tattoo. Mihawk pauses for a moment but then does the same, his thumb tracing the line of his own tattoo.

 

When Zoro was a kid, actually even up to the time when he left Zoro had always considered that pointless. An uncharacteristically saccharine gesture between people who know each other as a goodbye and reminder of their relationship. But now that he’s dreamed and now that he knows Sanji it feels different. The idea of one time not returning that gesture and it being the last time he saw Sanji would destroy him, especially after nearly losing him once.

 

“Bye kid.” Shanks grins at him and then walks off with a wave.

 

“Bye dad.” Zoro responds quietly, his mind still lingering on the idea of Sanji.

 

“Zoro, come.” Mihawk says and Zoro automatically follows.

 

“I’ll meet you in my room.” Zoro says quickly to Sanji as he leaves and the somewhat perplexed looking blond behind him.

 

Zoro is halfway down the next corridor before he remembers that he should have said ‘our room’ and he has to fight the twin urges to both kick himself and rush back to say the right thing. Idiot.

 

Zoro follows his father into the war room. It’s a large room with a high vaulted ceiling. It’s not too dissimilar in function from the room in the palace where Zeff tried to get him to force Sanji to leave. It has the same array of maps, although the one currently on the table focuses almost entirely on the land whereas the Baratian map had a wealth of underwater information. He wonders if he might be able to get Nami to make copies of the maps that both of them have and trade, that could be useful right?

 

His father heads to the large table in the centre of the room and leans against it and looks down at the map.

 

“We were kind of close to Drum, but Nami can tell you more.” Zoro offers, coming close.

 

“Prince Sanji said that he was sure that the King would not go to war with us. Do you believe that?” Mihawk asks him, turning to look at him with his piercingly intense eyes.

 

“Yes. He was genuine and Sanji believed him too. Honestly the idea of our two countries at war horrified him.” Zoro answers clearly and realises that he’s fallen back into his military stance instead of the more relaxed style of Baratie that he must have been using before. It must have rubbed off on him without him realising it.

 

“Hm. All the same I’m going to increase the border security on the fronts of most likely attack. Shanks would come back if he heard anything at sea but he’s not out there now…” He says, clearly thinking aloud.

 

He sighs and taps his finger on the edges of the map, looking down at their continent.

 

“And you took him to Kureha?” Mihawk asks, not looking up.

 

“Yes. She’s the best doctor I know. I don’t think anyone else could have saved him.” Zoro answers.

 

“We all owe her a great deal.” His father says in a sombre tone of voice.

 

“She said that she didn’t want payment, I offered-” Zoro starts to say but the sharp glare that Mihawk gives him stills Zoro’s tongue and halts his voice.

 

“You could not possibly repay her enough. Do you not understand what it is that she has done for us or do you not understand the gravity of your failure?” Mihawk says sharply, turning fully and staring harshly at Zoro.

 

“I know, I screwed up. But I trusted Kaku and Sanji is a strong fighter, I didn’t think that-” He begins to explain but his father cuts him off again.

 

“No you didn’t think. Your knights are your weapons and your armor, you are responsible for them. Sanji is the beloved prince of his Kingdom, the only child of the King. If he was to die at the hands of one of your knights, your weapons, then he would be a martyr. A selfless young man, died for the good of his people at the hands of a lying, duplicitous prince who clearly tricked him to get him somewhere just to kill him. That is how they would see it.” Mihawk says coldly.

 

He turns to the map once more and touches Baratie and its tall mountains.

 

“It is not merely the geography that has kept Baratie free for almost the entirety of their history. Baratians do not surrender even if it appears that they have. They do not care for the rules of warfare, for saying who is fighting and who is not, they do not care about surrendering. A Baratian who wants to fight you will not stop until one of you is dead, they are vengeful. Baratie is not a military power but this is one of the few things that they will show their true strength for. Sanji is beloved, his death alone would have motivated every Baratian to destroy us, if you add onto the fact that Sanji is the King’s only son and since the death of his wife Sanji is his only immediate family then he would have never let this go. Any country trying to trade with us over water would have had their ships sunk. Alabaster would have turned against us and likely Drum too.” Mihawk says, his voice dark and angry. Shame crawls up Zoro’s spine, trailing a sick kind of heat and when it gets to the back of his neck it feels like a hot hand holding onto him as if to say ‘look what you did’.

 

“I’m sorry.” He says quietly and bows deeply. He deserves any kind of punishment that his father sees fit to give him for this.

 

“Leave.” Mihawk says stiffly and Zoro backs out of the room, his father doesn’t even look up from the map.

 

Zoro pulls the door closed behind him and stands there for a moment, his hand on the handle and his heart in his throat. He can’t breathe right. He turns and heads back to his room, his feet leading him with little to no input from his mind as he runs over that whole conversation again and again.

 

He let his father down, he let his country down, he let Sanji down.

 

He comes to the door of his rooms, of their rooms and the two guards by the door salute him. He nods at them and lets himself in.

 

Sanji looks up at him, he’s sat on the floor at the low table with his white book and his writing equipment out. Sanji takes the pen from the page and smiles at him though the expression quickly fades.

 

“What’s wrong? What’s that face for?” Sanji asks, setting the pen down on the table.

 

Sanji wants to know what’s wrong? Oh, where does he begin to explain that?

 

“My father wanted to talk to me about the attempt on your life.” Zoro finally answers and Sanji’s mouth pulls into a displeased flat line.

 

“You’re not still torturing yourself about it are you?” Sanji asks, standing up in front of Zoro. His hands are on his hips and his whole body language is dismissive. He knows that it’s wrong but he can feel all of his internal anger turn towards Sanji for acting like he’s being stupid about this.

 

“You act like I’m making a big deal out of nothing!” Zoro snaps angrily.

 

“It’s not nothing, but there’s no point thinking about it.” Sanji says with a shrug and Zoro wants to scream.

 

“It’s my fault! I fucked up! I chose my knights, I trust them, I trusted you to them and my father trusted me to do the simple task of getting you from Baratie to here alive and in one piece. I failed and he’s…” Zoro shouting trails off and he feels his shoulders slump.

 

“Angry?” Sanji suggests, perhaps thinking that Zoro had forgotten the word, they are speaking in Baratian after all.

 

“Sure but he’s mostly… disappointed. It would have thrown both of our countries into war. I’m supposed to protect my people, fuck, I’m supposed to lead them eventually and I failed. So don’t… don’t tell me that I’m torturing myself over nothing.” He says sharply.

 

Sanji smartly doesn’t say anything. At least he’s not trying to claim that everything is fine and happy or treat him like a kid. Silence probably is the best option. Zoro sits down on the floor with a sigh and rubs his hands over his face, he needs to get his head together.

 

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. You did fuck up.” Sanji says and Zoro looks at up him in surprise.

 

“You trusted someone that you shouldn’t have done and I nearly died because of it. You fucked up.” Sanji continues, his hand rubbing the scar on his neck.

 

Zoro’s heart clenches painfully, so Sanji does blame him. The blond hadn’t shown a hint of blame until now but of course it’s there, he’s right.

 

“But,” Sanji says and sits down in front of Zoro, their knees nearly touching, “that doesn’t mean that it’s your fault, not really.”

 

“What?” Zoro asks in confusion.

 

“You had a choice at some point, whether to make him a knight or not, whether to be his friend or not, and you chose to when you shouldn’t have. But, I trust you and your other knights enough to know that if there was any sign that it was a bad choice then that it couldn’t be spotted. Even when I met him I didn’t realise just what was wrong, I should have, I made a mistake, same as you did. But that doesn’t mean that either of us failed. Sometimes bad shit just happens and it’s hard to say if you could have done something to stop it, sometimes you trust the wrong people, I’ve got family that prove that.” Sanji snorts.

 

“But you nearly died, there could have been a war!” Zoro argues.

 

“Yeah, there could have been. Look, Zoro, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this yet, but we don’t live in these big buildings and have knights and crowns for nothing. We’re royalty. We’re not special or better than anyone else but we are more important. If we were regular people and this happened then there wouldn’t be a war, the worst that’d happen would be a cycle of revenge from you and our parents. It’s the same mistake but the consequences are higher, get used to it.” Sanji tells him sharply.

 

“I am used to it! That’s why I know how awful it is to make a mistake this big, weren’t you listening?!” He shouts in frustration. Sanji groans and leans forward towards Zoro.

 

“I was, you aren’t. Zoro, you’re human, you’re going to make mistakes and you’re going to get hurt and get other people hurt. That doesn’t make you a failure or unfit to rule. It just means that you need someone who’s gonna kick your ass, spot your mistakes and help out when things go wrong.” Sanji tells him, his voice going softer at the end.

 

Zoro looks at Sanji in amazement. His parents aren’t married precisely because Shanks didn’t want the responsibility of royalty and helping to rule a country. In some way he’d perhaps not considered that he’d be ruling with Sanji when that time came, he wouldn’t be alone.

 

“I meant me, idiot. I’ll kick your ass.” Sanji grumbles and Zoro realises that he should have said something.

 

“Thanks. I’ll do the same to you.” He tells the blond who laughs and flicks his hair in a way that is definitely for show.

 

“A kind offer Zoro, but I am perfect, my flaws don’t exist.” Sanji sighs, a smile curling deviously on his lips.

 

Zoro pauses and then grins too, making Sanji narrow his eyes suspiciously at him.

 

“They don’t exist, huh?” He asks slowly and sneakily.

 

“No, I’m wonderful.” Sanji preens.

 

“So they don’t exist like dragons don’t exist, right?” Zoro says.

 

He gets to watch the glorious change in expression from smug Sanji to shocked Sanji and finally outraged Sanji. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.

 

“You asshole! I was being nice and supportive and I will CRUSH YOU!” Sanji snarls and flings himself at Zoro, toppling them both over and effectively body slamming Zoro into the ground. Zoro would probably do better at fighting him off if he wasn’t laughing so hard.

 

Sanji knees him in the ribs and then scrambles on top of him, pinning Zoro’s upper arms under Sanji’s knees. The blond folds his arms across his chest and looks distinctly put out, though Zoro is 90% sure that the expression is fake.

 

“I appreciate the offer. I’ll take you up on it some time.” Zoro says with a smile. Damnit, Sanji was able to completely turn his mood around. It still hurts knowing that he’s let his father down and disappointed him, but he feels like he’s going to be okay now.

 

“Tch, like you have a choice. I’m kicking your ass no matter what.” Sanji mutters.

  
Zoro lets himself rest on the floor a bit more, he was right about what he said before. He had thought that he knew what he was getting into with this marriage thing, but it’s way better than he’d ever anticipated.


	26. Chapter 26

Sanji considers it a game of sorts, wake up and try to disentangle himself from Zoro without waking him. Some days he manages it perfectly and others he wakes Zoro, not that the moss head ever remembers if he does. Evidently Sanji is having trouble getting used to doing that in a real bed because every time so far he’s roused Zoro ever so slightly.

“Go back to sleep.” He whispers and Zoro mumbles something then rolls over onto his stomach in the space Sanji was in.

He slides from the bed and out of their bedroom. He shuts the door behind him quietly and stands alone in their shared living area. He could do what he wants in here but it’s not as big as he would like and more importantly it’s indoors.

He walks over to the uncovered window and his breath fogs up the clear glass with how close he is. Not that it makes a difference, the giant mountain in the distance is the only thing that he can see as everything else in between is covered in a blanket of fog. In the pre-dawn light it’s distinctly eerie.

“Shitty spooky country.” Sanji mutters irritably and heads for the door.

He opens it and the guards to either side snap to startled attention as if Sanji is going to scold them for not acting right. They’re wearing armor of course because everyone is to some degree or another. Well, except him, he’s wearing his cotton pyjama pants and shirt and nothing else.

“Prince Sanji.” They both greet him and Sanji nods. He steps out of his and Zoro’s rooms and shuts the door behind him. So, which way did he go yesterday? Right. Well, today it’s going to be left.

Sanji turns and begins walking, his bare feet silent on the cool stone floor.

“A-ah, Prince Sanji, wait! You shouldn’t just-” one of the guards says, calling after him.

Sanji pauses and looks around.

“Don’t bother, the others said that he doesn’t speak Tsukian.” the second guard says, shaking his head. That’s a shame, Sanji thought that the guy might actually try to speak to him and ask him if he does speak Tsukian. He’s not going to now though, so Sanji’s not going to tell him that he does speak it.

Sanji turns and continues walking along the way that he had been, only then letting the sneaky smile spread on his face. He wonders how long it’ll be until someone realises that he does. He’s looking forward to that.

“Not a word?” The first guard questions, following along behind him.

“Not as far as I can tell.” the second answers.

Sanji continues walking a little more, they pass another guard and the two guards following him tell that one to get someone else to cover Zoro’s door. Evidently they have to keep watch over poor little him.

“How can he just… walk around like that?” The first asks quietly behind Sanji.

“What? All unprotected by armor and weak?” the other responds and Sanji shoves aside the irritation at that and continues on as if he hasn’t heard a word.

He comes to a turning in the hallway and peers down it. Ah-hah, a staircase! He turns that way and heads down the stairs.

“Yeah. Baratie must be a strange place if he can just do that.” the second says with a thoughtful noise.

Sanji looks a little further down the corridor. The barred glass windows show that they’re at ground level now and before too long he’s able to peer outside and see what appears to be a small training area with dummies off to the side. He takes the door that leads out to it and takes in a breath of the cool dawn air.

This time of day is one of the few when it’s actually cool in this country. Not too long after the considerably dramatic breakfast yesterday it got hot and sticky to an unpleasant degree that saw him hanging out with Franky and bitching about the weather. Right now though the air is cool and even the dampness of the fog leaves a fresh chill on his skin.

“Shit… look at how pale he is.” one of the guards says and Sanji has to actively stop himself from flinching at the words. Zoro wasn’t joking when he said that he was one of the palest people that he’d ever seen. Even amongst Baratians Sanji is on the fairer side.

“Oh no, I can’t unthink it.” The other guard groans. Sanji pads out into the training area proper, the stone thankfully not slippery from the fog. He stops and pulls one arm to his chest, he holds it straight and pulls it in towards himself with one arm and tries to pull it away with the other, giving himself a decent stretch. He keeps one ear open as the guards continue talking.

“What?” The first guard asks curiously.

“Just… can you imagine how well a bruise would show up on his skin?” one guard says slowly. Sanji stretches his wrists and frowns, his back to the guards, was it his imagination or did that sound like....

“You mean a bite. What is wrong with you? He’s married to the Prince, he is a Prince! You can’t just-” The other snaps, his voice getting higher and more stressed as he goes on. Sanji glances over and the pair fall silent.

So it was innuendo. Or rather, not even innuendo, just straight up dirty talk. The things one can learn when people think that others can’t understand them. Well, he had intended on letting the guards talk so that he could get a feeling about the place but when the pair of guards yesterday morning started talking shit about how weird he was he decided he’d deliberately not let them know what he understands. He’d never suspected to hear anything this incriminating though. When they find out that he does speak Tsukian though… oh boy, that’s going to be great.

Maybe he can make this a little worse for them.

Sanji reaches up above him and laces his fingers together, pushing his hands palms up and joined to the sky. He leans back into the stretch, allowing it to pull at his abs and wake all those core muscles up a little. The movement makes his shirt pull up against his naked skin, showing off a stripe of pale skin above where his pyjama trousers hang low on his hips. Then with one long exhale he moves from having his hands a little past vertical and behind him and instead swings them and the rest of his upper body downwards so that his palms are now on the top of his feet.

“Shit…” One of the guards says under his breath and apparently they’re keen on the sight of Sanji bent over. Sanji lifts himself up a little so that his upper body is parallel to the ground and lets his back arch a little before sinking back down even deeper into his stretch. He wraps his arms around the back of his legs to pull himself close and make this stretch actually a stretch, he’s so familiar with these moves now that anything but this hardly registers to his muscles as such. His mind wanders to Zoro and he considers that he should get Zoro to do this some day, he’s interested to see how flexible the other man actually is.

He repeats his movements, reaching to the sky where water comes from and then down to the ground. Despite his interest in provoking a response from the guards that will embarrass them later he fades into dreamlike focus on his movements. He puts his hands just so on the floor and feels how his balance shifts inch by inch as he slowly pulls himself into a handstand, going as slowly as possible to stress himself. He shifts to one hand and his body flows with him. As he moves he tries to recall the sea, the sound of her waves and clings to it as he has been doing more and more with each day that they’ve moved further away from her.

He stretches an arm out, still upside down, and shakes his head in an effort to get the thoughts to leave him. The movement dislodges his mother’s necklace which falls from him and his the flat stone floor with a clunk.

“Oh shit.” He curses and flicks himself upright and into a crouch.

He grabs the necklace off of the floor and stares at the deep blue stone on it. It’s not scratched, thank goodness. As he slides it back over his head he just barely suppresses a yawn, he kind of wants to go back to bed and sleep now. He slides it over his head and shakes the feeling off.

Zoro pings his senses, the idea of him, the smell of his skin, the way that he walks. Sanji turns on the spot and yes, Zoro was coming up behind him, dressed in armor again. It had seemed normal when they were travelling but at the end of their stay in Baratie Zoro had started going without it almost all of the time. Seeing him somewhere where he should be relaxed but still in those clothes feels a little odd. Zoro should be more at ease.

“I’ve got to work on being able to sneak up on you.” Zoro notes idly in Baratian as he comes close.

“Good luck. Why would you want to sneak up on me anyway?” He challenges and Zoro grins.

“I like being better than you.” Zoro counters and Sanji purses his lips in displeasure.

He pauses and a grin spreads across his face.

“Well how would you know? You’ve not found anything you’re better than me at.” He gloats and watches excitedly as the competitive fire flares in Zoro’s eyes.

“Oh, you want to fight and prove that?” Zoro growls, his hand moving to his swords.

“Thought you’d never ask.” Sanji grins and bounces a little on the balls of his feet. His bare feet. He looks at Zoro’s swords again, this has the potential to suck a lot.

“I brought your boots, since you’re dumb enough to go wandering around without them.” Zoro says, clearly reading Sanji’s thoughts on his face. Zoro’s thumb jerks towards the pair of white boots by the door and the guards.

Sanji leaves Zoro there and walks away from him towards his boots and the two guards.

“Why are they white?” One guard murmurs softly to the other and Sanji sees that he’s going to get this a lot in this stupid country.

“Cause of where he’s from, you know what they’re like there.” the second replies and his tone doesn’t suggest great thoughts about where Sanji is from or Sanji himself. Sanji grits his teeth and doesn’t look at them. He snatches the boots from the floor and pulls them on, swiftly tying them on. He hardly looks intimidating in his pale blue sleep clothes and white boots.

Well, fine. They can underestimate him, but they won’t do it twice.

He stops before Zoro with a click of his boot heels on the stone slabs and cranes his neck to the side so it clicks as Zoro pulls his swords free. Sanji sees the look of alarm and alertness run over the guards and they look at each other and then their hands go to their own weapons, as if Zoro might have some legitimate reason for actually attacking him rather than sparring.

Sanji drops his focus from all but Zoro. His husband looks awake and alert, despite it being early and before breakfast. Zoro’s not a morning person but he’s not sleepy now it seems. Zoro draws two swords but leaves the third sheathed for the moment, Zoro’s not trying to kill him so he’s not going to just leap in at the deep end. Sanji wants to push him hard enough that he had to draw that last sword though. He wants to and he will.

Sanji moves first.

He leaps and strikes out with a roundhouse kick that Zoro has to move quickly to block. Sanji drops from the kick and lands on the floor, he crouches with the movement and sweeps a kick out for Zoro’s knees. Zoro jumps high to avoid it but he’s not as agile about at it as Sanji is. Nor is he as good at it as Sanji knows that he could be with training. Still, Zoro manages to swing a sword for Sanji in a way that he has to roll to to avoid. He turns the roll into a handspring to get onto his feet and get some distance.

Zoro doesn’t give him the time to recover though and presses towards him. He swipes for Sanji with a blow that is strong enough that when Sanji catches it he nearly knees himself in the eye. Sanji tenses and pushes back against Zoro’s blade. He twists his grounded foot and plants himself there securely, pushing with a burst of strength that sends Zoro stumbling backwards.

Sanji lets his leg fall and looks at Zoro who is just about to attack him again.

“You should have been able to resist that for longer, I should have had to use more force.” Sanji tells him and Zoro stops and scowls.

“I think it’s your footing, come here and do that again.” Sanji says and Zoro frowns but comes closer.

“There’s nothing wrong with my footing.” Zoro answers and comes close to Sanji. This time it’s Sanji who raises his foot first and Zoro catches it on his crossed blades. Sanji gives Zoro a moment to adjust and then fixes his own balance and grounds his weight. He pushes and Zoro starts to slide again.

“Ah! See? There. If you twist your foot you’ll have more grounding. I think you’re locking your knee too.” Sanji says and points at Zoro’s forward facing foot at the back.

“I know that, but I’m staying light. I’m more agile this way, so I can change and chase after you. That’s not a new stance, I’m not an idiot. I’m just choosing to use a different one.” Zoro responds.

“Well yeah, but you know that I’m trying to push you back. If someone’s trying to push you and move you around then they’re controlling the ground, not you. You’re making the wrong choice. Get me off of you first and then switch to something agile to chase me. I should have to work way more than that against you.” Sanji says and Zoro frowns.

Zoro opens his mouth to answer but Sanji sees his eyes flick behind Sanji and his whole expression becomes startled. Sanji whirls around to see the guards where they were but this time standing to attention and saluting, saluting Mihawk.

“Dismissed.” Mihawk says with a wave of his hands at the guards who smartly march back inside.

Zoro jerks back from Sanji so fast that Sanji nearly falls at the sudden movement. Zoro sheathes his swords and drags himself into a deep bow with a mumbled greeting of ‘father’. Sanji’s mind runs over Zoro’s encounter with his father yesterday and the protective part of Sanji bristles. But Zoro doesn’t need him to defend him, at least not right now. Moreover, Sanji responding as if he did need protecting would likely makes things worse and actually hurt Zoro. He’s just going to have to deal with what’s going on between Zoro and his father as being between them and not him. Sanji lowers his leg and bows as well.

“Were you two sparring?” Mihawk asks, looking at Sanji’s clothes.

“I was… I don’t know the word.” Sanji trails off in Tsukian. He’s trying to justify what he came out here for, for the ritual that drove him outside for Zoro to find him and then train together.

“I don’t either.” Zoro says clearly grasping what Sanji means.

“It’s like meditation for him but it’s excersise kind of, he does it in the morning. I came to find him and we were just practicing a little.” Zoro answers for Sanji and Sanji doesn’t call Zoro up on the slightly belittling use of ‘kind of exercise’ in that sentence. He can fix that problem some other time away from an audience.

“Have you been training when you’ve been away? Robin is a capable knight but she is not a swordsman.” Mihawk says and there is a judgemental edge to the question that has nothing to do with Robin. Mihawk, either deliberately or not, is challenging if Zoro has failed at that as well as in keeping Sanji safe.

“Zoro and I have been sparring regularly.” Sanji says and Zoro glances at him, making Sanji remember again that he was going to not intervene.

“I’ve been training every day.” Zoro says seriously and Mihawk seems to consider that answer.

“Show me.” Mihawk says after a few long moment.

Sanji’s heart tightens as if someone had wrapped their hand around it and clenched it into a fist. Surely Mihawk isn’t asking Zoro to challenge him for the throne again? Right?

“You want to spar?” Zoro asks in surprise but Mihawk is already drawing the blade that is almost as long as Sanji is tall.

“Unless you don’t want to show me any progress that you’ve made.” Mihawk answers and Zoro’s expression darkens.

Sanji realises that he’s going to have to back out of the way because evidently this fight is going to happen. Zoro said it was a spar and even if it wasn’t Zoro has survived a no holds barred fight with Mihawk over the throne before and Zoro has got to be stronger than he was then by miles. So… he’ll be fine. Sanji grits his teeth and makes himself get out of the way. If Zoro and Mihawk hadn’t had their confrontation so recently Sanji would feel a lot better about this. He doesn’t know what Mihawk is like as a parent or a fighting teacher. With Zeff when they’re actually training whether in cooking or fighting, they put aside anything personal and if they can’t then they simply don’t train. Sanji doesn’t know if Mihawk and Zoro do that though, he doesn’t know if they’re trying to prove something with this.

Zoro squares off against Mihawk, all three blades drawn right from the the start. His face is deadly serious with focus and his body is tense and alert in a way that Sanji has never seen before. By comparison Mihawk looks almost a little lazy in the way that he surveys his son. He flicks his blade around in his hand, adjusting his grip on the monster weapon. Zoro waits and doesn’t make the first move.

Mihawk lunges, his movement is so fast and sudden that Sanji hardly sees it. He can’t help but be reminded of a snake’s strike, whip fast and deadly. Zoro catches the blow and diverts it, quickly freeing one hand to strike with another sword. By the time that the blade gets there Mihawk is long gone, dodging out of the way like it’s nothing. Zoro tries to push for another attack but Mihawk forces him to abandon it if he wants to keep the same number of limbs. After that Zoro is on the defensive, every attack either making him step back or brace in an attempt to catch and parry it.

Mihawk is strong, very strong. Sanji isn’t weak but he’s never made Zoro’s defence wobble from his attacks, even the dragon didn’t do that in the same way. Zoro is having a harder time holding his swords steady against Mihawk’s force than he was against the downward pressure of the dragon’s bite.

Sanji wants to scream at Zoro because he’s stronger than this, he knows that he is. He’s staring at Zoro when Mihawk pulls his blade back for what is clearly going to be a strong attack. Zoro can’t get an attack in before it happens, he’s just going to have to take it. Shit. But then he sees a flicker of something run over Zoro’s expression and he sees Zoro’s stance change ever so slightly. He adjusts his footing, planting his back foot sideways. This isn’t a time for agility and giving chase.

Zoro catches Mihawk’s strike with the cross of his swords and Sanji can see the way his whole body coils up at the impact, his knees and elbows bend and Sanji can see his muscles strain. Then Zoro pushes back, he straightens up against Mihawk’s attack and resists. The stone under Zoro’s foot cracks under the stress.

Zoro shoves Mihawk back and attacks. Now it’s him leading the attacks. Mihawk seems to have no problem parrying anything that Zoro throws but he’s not the one setting the pace now. Evidently after several attacks Mihawk has had enough because the moment that Zoro doesn’t flow into his next attack quick enough he lashes out with an attack of his own that bodily throws Zoro away. Before Zoro can recover Mihawk is over him with his sword over Zoro’s chest. With a disappointed sigh Zoro drops his swords and Mihawk steps back.

Mihawk won.

Zoro stands up and Sanji can read in his whole body how Zoro is angry at himself for not doing better. He’s not sulking or being childish about his loss, but he clearly wants to be better so badly that it’s almost hurting him right now.

“You have improved.” Mihawk says, looking at him and Zoro nearly drops his sword in surprise. Zoro looks up at his father with wide eyes.

“Thank you.” Zoro says sincerely, not asking if Mihawk meant it or if he’s sure. Good, Zoro shouldn’t have any doubt in his abilities. Sanji realises that he has a feral kind of grin on his face and knows that Zoro is good, damn good. But he wants Zoro to be even better and Sanji wants to be just as strong, if not more. Maybe he does belong in this country after all.

“Your style has changed a little. More… fluid.” Mihawk muses. His piercing gaze shifts over to Sanji and stays there. Sanji is used to stare downs with Zeff and Zoro too but Mihawk’s eyes are perhaps the most intense looking that Sanji has ever seen.

“You too. Come, fight.” Mihawk says to him.

“A spar?” Sanji asks warily because he really doesn’t want to have to go through the same challenge match with Mihawk that Zoro had to go through, the one that left Zoro with that huge scar. He certainly doesn’t want to die in his pyjamas, though apparently he’s going to fight the ruler of Shimotsuki in them.

“Yes.” the man says and says no more. He’s not giving Sanji another option unless Sanji outright says that he doesn’t want to fight him. Sanji glances at Zoro to see him watching them with interest, he evidently has no problem with it or thinks anything is amiss.

Sanji nods and moves into a free space away from where Zoro and Mihawk are currently stood. As Mihawk comes to stand opposite him Sanji can see several of the guards peeking around the doorway. Sanji shakes the thought of them off, he needs to focus on this.

What did he learn from watching Mihawk and Zoro fight? Mihawk is physically very strong, Sanji is unlikely to be able to brute force his way through an attack if he can parry Zoro’s that easily. He’s faster than Zoro but then so is Sanji. So Sanji isn’t sure who is faster between himself and Mihawk but it would probably be wise to assume that the King holds that title for now. Mihawk is tall and he’s got one hell of a fucking reach with that sword so Sanji is going to have to try REALLY hard if he wants to get close enough to do any damage. That’s what he needs to do, he must get close to Mihawk.

Sanji stands there, still and silent. He watches Mihawk’s eyes and the position of his feet. Sanji will not make the first move. Long seconds pass before Mihawk moves and he sees the same shift in stance that he’s seen on Zoro before, a straight swipe down with his sword. He sidesteps fast and it doesn’t come near him.

Mihawk’s eyes focus a little more, that hit was a test, a challenge to see how much he’ll have to throttle back his skill if he doesn’t want to risk killing him. From the way he adjusts his grip for more power Sanji would guess that he passed enough that he’s not going to hold back as much now.

They continue like that for a few more strikes, each one getting faster until he’s up to the speed he was using with Zoro. Sanji is about to tell him to cut it out when Mihawk smiles and lunges for him, this time for real. Sanji only just gets out of the way, jerking himself aside so that the blade goes between his torso and his arm.

He feels a rush of air on bare skin and fabric slide down the inside of his arm. His clothes got cut. AGAIN.

Oh, fuck this. Sanji isn’t going to stand around all day being stabbed at, he needs to get into that giant attack range and then closer still to get to where Mihawk can’t swing that blade.

Mihawk’s next attack is a side swing that could cut Sanji in two at the waist. He can either dodge out of it or step into it, there’s no way he can parry it. He jumps forward and up, the blade sailing under him. Unfortunately Mihawk seems to be quicker than Zoro and changes the angle from horizontal to diagonally up and towards Sanji. Shit, shit he can’t move out of the way. He twists and catches the edge of the blade with the toe and flicks it, altering its path so it doesn’t hit him. Unfortunately that move sends Sanji rocketing towards the ground. He catches the force in his arms and elbows, just halting his momentum enough to stop himself smashing his face into the stone.

He’s not sure if it’s tactics or habit but he redirects that force into a handspring with a kick in it, aiming right for Mihawk’s face. His foot makes contact with something, not flesh but something. As he twists to land on the floor he sees that he kicked the King’s hat off of his head, evidently he’d dodged enough that Sanji missed his face but not everything.

Mihawk’s response is so quick that Sanji doesn’t even see it. He might have done if his eyes hadn’t been momentarily stuck to the black hat fluttering in the air. Sanji just catches the blow out of reflex, though he suspects that Mihawk pulled it a little at the last moment. It’s too quick and he didn’t give himself enough warning. Though he catches the attack with his foot he doesn’t coordinate enough strength and instead of holding steady his leg just jabs back up and hits Sanji in the chest. He’s thrown in a ball across their little makeshift battleground.

Sanji lands and rolls painfully, hitting his elbow hard enough to make his arm tingle and before the can recover and scramble to his feet there is a lot of sword in his face. Sanji’s eyes travel up the long blade to the piercing gaze of his father in law, the King, the Emperor in fact. This man is without a doubt the greatest warrior in this country, that’s how he holds that title. But like Zoro, Sanji is a prince and as of this year a prince of this country too. He’s not going to let Mihawk think that he’ll just stay down.

Sanji lowers his hands to the ground, palms flat on the slightly cool stone. With as much speed as he can muster Sanji pushes himself up on one hand and slaps the blade away with his other. The metal of the sword feels warm. He tries for an attack to push Mihawk back but he just ends up with his back against a wall and the blade at his throat. He has a flash of memory, of Kaku, of more blood than he knew that he had and the feel of steel through skin. He only suppresses the shudder at the unwelcome memory because the movement would jar him into the blade and make his memories a present reality.

Sanji can’t escape this one, but Mihawk is still watching him. Sanji holds his hands up in surrender and Mihawk lowers the blade. Mihawk looks at him and Sanji really doesn’t like the look, it’s like the way Zeff looks at a blowfish before dissecting it bit by bit for safe consumption. Mihawk is studying him and assessing him. Mihawk looks over at Zoro and Sanji does the same. Sanji notices the guards, who had evidently been watching when they weren’t supposed to, jerk out of sight and back into the corridor. The three of them are alone again.

“I see that Knight Robin did not exaggerate your father’s words about you.” Mihawk says thoughtfully as he sheathes his oversized weapon.

“My father’s words?” Sanji asks breathlessly, his heart still racing from the fight and his memories. He runs a hand over his throat but the only damage to it is covered with an ugly scar.

“When he proposed the marriage between you we discussed you both, through Robin as a translator. I’m sure she was giving the closest translation she could. I had asked him if you were strong. Regardless of what my other half thinks, I did want Zoro to be with someone he could respect. Your father said that you were as strong and stubborn as the sea, that you could tear down something as eternal as a mountain with time.” Mihawk says thoughtfully.

Why… why would that shitty old man say something like that? Comparing his strength to the sea itself and… and…

Sanji is glad that he doesn’t have to say anything right now because his throat is mysteriously tight and his vision is a little hazy. He blinks quickly a few times and nods jerkily.

“You both have a long way to go though. I expect improvement from you both now that I know where your skill levels both stand. Learn from each other. Good day.” Mihawk nods and with a whirl of his cape and a quick bow to collect his fallen hat he leaves.

Sanji and Zoro are alone in the courtyard and Sanji is almost in a daze until Zoro walks over and punches him in the arm.

“Ow, what the fuck?” Sanji snaps, clutching at his arm in anger. Zoro’s face isn’t angry though, it’s covered in beaming smile from one side of his stupid face to the other.

“I’ve never seen anyone last that long against him on their first time, that was nearly a minute! And you hit him!” Zoro exclaims in uncharacteristic glee. Sanji’s not so sure he’d be this enthused about Zoro and Zeff sparring.

“I hit his hat, not him.” Sanji corrects. He wishes that he’d scored some kind of hit, at least he wouldn’t feel like he got his ass handed to him that badly. Though Mihawk seemed… pleased with his performance. At least he agreed with the overwhelming compliment that Zeff apparently paid him when Sanji wasn’t around to hear it. He’s never heard Zeff say something that positive about him. Does Zeff say shit like that about him when he’s not there to hear it?

“No you- his cheek. Only just but you did.” Zoro says and scratches his thumbnail up his own cheek softly and Sanji takes an educated guess that the word Zoro means is grazed. He grazed Mihawk’s face? Just hit him? Holy shit…

Sanji smiles slightly and feels a little better about it. Zoro still looks over the moon about it though, or about something.

“What’s that face about?” Sanji asks, coming closer and pinching Zoro’s smile stretched cheeks.

“We’re married, you idiot.” Zoro sighs, his expression returning to something closer to normal.

“I remember, I was there. So?” Sanji responds.

“Your victories are mine to take pride in too and mine are yours. I’m proud of you.” Zoro says and Sanji’s insides explode in butterflies and he’s pretty sure that he’s an attractive shade of red.

“Well, I- ah… you were pretty good yourself. I saw that change you made in your footwork, it helped didn’t it?” Sanji says, looking at Zoro out of the side of his eye.

“Yeah, a little. You could use more physical strength. You’re strong but you rely too much on being able to bend or dodge out of things.” Zoro points out and Sanji frowns. His first instinct is to tell Zoro to go fuck off and that his fighting style is his own and that there’s nothing wrong with it. He doesn’t want to fight like Zoro or become a swordsman, but maybe he should look at this like cooking. He has to learn the recipe before he can alter the food to his style.

“Well you could use more flexibility, you’re limiting yourself. So how about we swap?” Sanji proposes and Zoro opens his mouth and looks thoughtful as he pauses.

“‘Learn from each other’ he did say that.” Zoro notes thoughtfully and looks at the door his father left through as if it holds some answers. Sanji realises as Zoro quotes his father that they had both switched back to Baratian except for that.

“We could do it like we used to learn our languages. You fight like a Baratian for a week then I fight like a Tsukian for a week.” Sanji offers.

“Deal. I’ll master anything you can teach me easily.” Zoro says with a feral smile and a fire in his eyes.

“Oh, I’ll remind you of that.” Sanji chuckles and looks forward to pushing Zoro just as far as he can stretch, not to mention making him wake up before dawn.

“You ruined some more clothes again.” Zoro says after a pause and Sanji look down to where Mihawk nearly stabbed him. The inside of the sleeve is slashed open and hanging loosely.

“Yeah, I noticed.” Sanji grumbles, picking at the hole. “It can be repaired though. I need to find a tailor, think you can help me with that?”

“A what?” Zoro questions as the two of them make their way to the hallway and past the two guards who snap smart salutes and stare at Sanji when they think he isn’t looking.

“Someone who makes and fixes clothes. Or are you hoping I’ll run out and just stop wearing clothes altogether?” Sanji asks and when he doesn’t get an immediate answer from Zoro he looks at the man to see him clearly momentarily caught by the idea. He wonders just what exactly Zoro is picturing here.

“Though, I do still have to get dressed for the day, so these clothes do have to come off in a minute.” Sanji says airily. The expression on Zoro’s face is now amusingly focused and serious.

“Of course.” Zoro agrees with a nod.

“Well, I think you should come and help me then.” he says with a grin that Zoro returns. Zoro isn’t obsessed with sex, or with what they do instead of actual sex at any rate. He’s never pressured Sanji for what they do or for sex, even though he’s sometimes the one to get things rolling in that direction.

Sanji shoulders open the door to their rooms with Zoro following.

He pulls his shirt off and though he can feel that he’s already excited from the adrenaline of the fight he has the space of mind to wonder if he’s teasing Zoro with this. If he’s giving Zoro part of what he wants but denying him what he truly desires. Zoro’s waited for him for so long and it’s evident just how strongly Zoro feels for him. Plus they’re married, it’s not like Zoro’s going anywhere, this is a forever thing between them.

Zoro turns around to face Sanji. He looks excited but Sanji looks beyond that. Zoro is a handsome man, in a rugged and angular kind of way. He is pretty too though, the way his eyelashes fan out against his skin when his eyes are shut, the bow of his lips and the regal colours of his eyes. Zoro is strong yet humble, honest and capable of admitting and facing hard truths, he’s beautiful and he loves him.

So why haven’t they had sex yet?

Sanji considers closing the gap between them and biting Zoro, telling him to do it. The thought of Zoro’s reaction to that excites Sanji but the idea of going beyond that fills Sanji with all of the wrong sorts of tension. He shakes it off. This is Zoro, Zoro would never hurt him. Well, okay he would but in a spar or a fight but never seriously and never when Sanji wasn’t okay with that. Zoro would no doubt go over and above reasonable demands to be sure that if they had sex it was without pain. He should do it, it’s not fair to keep Zoro waiting for as long as he has. Really, he has nothing to fear.

So why is his heart racing so? Why does he feel wrong?

No, no, he should just get it over with.

“Sanji?” Zoro says and touches Sanji’s arm, making him jump.

Sanji looks at Zoro in alarm and there is worry in Zoro’s dark gold eyes. It takes a lot to make Zoro worry, what kind of face was Sanji making to get Zoro to look at him like that? Shit, he shouldn’t do this to Zoro, he shouldn’t make Zoro something to be gotten over. Zoro shouldn’t be treated like a bandage that needs ripping off to shorten the pain instead of prolonging it. How could he dare to think that about him?

“Sanji, you’re gone pale. More than normal I mean.” Zoro says, his jab looking for a reaction from him. Sanji smiles weakly.

“I’m fine.” Sanji answers and he can hear the disgustingly weak tone in his voice.

Zoro doesn’t look in the slightest bit convinced of that. Sanji is just going to have to wait for the time to be right between them or else it’s going to feel as wrong as this. He just wishes that he knew what it was he was supposed to be waiting for, what the missing piece is that will erase his uncertainties. Hopefully Zoro can deal with waiting for however long that is.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m going to go get dressed, then we’ll go and eat.” He says and walks off to their bedroom to get clean and undamaged clothes.

“Yeah, sure.” Zoro answers, though he sounds confused. Damnit, Zoro doesn’t deserve this. Sanji hopes that whatever it is that needs to change in him changes soon, for Zoro’s sake.

 


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boy do I hope you like long chapters cause you are in for one. I also want to thank Mimu for helping me to design Zoro and Sanji's outfits (though she did pretty much all of the designing) and for her awesome art that you can see at the end of the chapter or on my tumblr (undanewneon)

Zoro wishes that he had some way to capture an exact moment in time and preserve it forever. If he could he’d want Sanji’s expression right now to be made into a painting so he could just go and look at it whenever he wanted. Sanji’s smile is broad and open, he’s half gasping with delight. His visible blue eye is sparkling with joy and his whole posture screams glee and excitement.

 

“I’d been starting to think that you weren’t interested in the castle’s kitchens.” He says to Sanji who gives him his best ‘are you stupid?’ look. Zoro’s got to know that look pretty well over the last half a year.

 

“Look, dumbass. I’m not going to just show up here the moment I arrive and demand to be part of someone else’s kitchen. I’ve been taking time to be at my best and to learn from and appreciate the food that they make.” Sanji says with a put upon sigh.

 

“Oh, I see. You wanted to study all of our food first.” Zoro says, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

 

“Now he gets it.” Sanji snorts.

 

“So how come you only waited four days? Less really since we only just had breakfast.” Zoro asks smugly and Sanji looks at him with his eye twitching in irritation.

 

“Because I have a limited amount of self restraint and I use most of it on your stupid ass.” Sanji retorts and Zoro laughs loudly. Sanji has zero self restraint for most of the time, he says and does what he wants. Zoro would consider it a character flaw if he didn’t like that so much.  

 

“Well go on then and get in there.” Zoro urges him.

 

“Yeah I will, it’s nice not to be followed by your guards for a change. I know they’re doing their job but it’s getting annoying.” Sanji sighs and Zoro feels a pang of regret at having to stifle Sanji that way.

 

“They’re just following you until we’ve figured out the Kaku problem.” Zoro tells him, feeling a pang of guilt once again for having been too late to realise how wrong things were.

 

“Any luck with that? This is the first time you’ve spoken about it in ages.” Sanji remarks, folding his arms and leaning back against the wall outside the kitchens.

 

In truth Zoro doesn’t want to think about Kaku and he’s only seen him in the dungeons the once since they got back. He knows that his father has spoken to Kaku and tried to get information from him, he knows that Perona has besieged him with her ghosts to make him crack but he won’t. Robin has said that he won’t break, if it was going to happen it would have by now and Kaku still firmly believes that things will turn out like he wants them to.

 

Zoro hates Kaku for what he did, absolutely and completely. But when he went down there and saw his friend weak and bloodied his kneejerk reaction was sympathy. Kaku was his friend for years and for a second it was if he still was. Then the knowledge of the scar on Sanji’s neck and the betrayal came flooding back and it left.

 

He hasn’t been back since. He doesn’t think it will help and he doesn’t want to feel like that again.

 

Is that cowardice?

 

“No news.” He says stiffly.

 

“Well, even if he doesn’t talk he’s still useful.” Sanji shrugs, rolling up the sleeves of his new shirt. Sanji’s clothes haven’t arrived yet, though they should be here any day, so he’d finally got someone to make Sanji new clothes. Sanji asked for white but the puzzled tailor didn’t have any. They had designed them as best they could and though Zoro had told him that he could send back any he didn’t like Sanji only sent back one or two.  

 

The shirt that Sanji is wearing now is a copy of one of his ruined ones but in a night sky blue and the jet black trousers that he’s got on make his legs look twice as long. He doesn’t look Tsukian but he doesn’t look fully Baratian any more either. He just looks like… Sanji.

 

“How is Kaku useful if he’s not telling us anything? That’s the opposite of useful.” Zoro says, trying to keep up with the conversation instead of just staring at Sanji.

 

“You’re kind of dumb when it comes to people having a secret agenda and lying aren’t you? Kaku didn’t come up with this on his own, someone gave him the idea.” Sanji says slowly and patiently.

 

“I know that.” Zoro responds tersely.

 

“So, idiot, we have him locked up. He’s a loose end for someone else out there, he could crack any time and tell us who else was involved. He’s _bait_.” the blond purrs and Zoro’s spine tingles. That’s… really smart actually.

 

“Well no one’s getting in here. The castle is heavily guarded and it’ll be even more so when everyone is here for the feast tomorrow.” he tells Sanji confidently.

 

“Yeah, instead we’ll have a building full of strange heavily armed people gathered together who are all going to be really invested in whether your father is in power or not and probably have strong feelings about our marriage. I feel so much better now.” Sanji snorts.

 

“Sanji, I’ve… got your back. Okay?” Zoro tells him and Sanji looks surprised for a second before his face switches into an expression that’s soft and… fond.

 

“I didn’t doubt you Zoro. When it comes to you I _know_.” Sanji says softly.

 

Zoro’s heart halts in his chest and then goes triple speed.

 

Sanji _knows_ ?! _Knows_ him?! Did Robin talk to Sanji about it even though she said that she wouldn’t? Shit, she and Nami both knew. Maybe they spoke to Sanji about it and didn’t explain what the dream means and he’s already had it but didn’t realise what it meant. Or didn’t realise that he needed to tell Zoro, maybe he thought that it was obvious or it’s some other cultural thing or-

 

“Oh shit, I said the wrong one again didn’t I? I meant, I have faith in you Zoro. I mean that having so many people here is a risk to both of us but I have faith in your and my knights, and I trust you.” Sanji insists and he is saying something kind but Zoro still feels like Sanji slapped him.

 

“I’m gonna go introduce myself and see if I can help out. I’ll see you later.” Sanji adds and walks off with a wave, seemingly oblivious to Zoro’s breaking heart.

 

Zoro stands in the hallway for a moment collecting himself, he feels like he’s in bits. He turns and leaves, not truly knowing for where. He just follows his feet and finds himself on the roof of the castle atop one of the turrets. There are guards in lookout points within the turrets themselves at all edges of the castle but no one wants to be on the top of the castle in the hot sun if they don’t have to, so he’s alone.

 

He sits down and dangles his legs over the edge of the castle and looks down at the tiny people milling about below. He remembers when Robin and Usopp first cut him and Sanji off from their translation services in order to encourage them to learn. She had told him that they needed to talk directly to each other if they were to communicate properly and they couldn’t do that through her and Usopp. She had said that arranged or not communication was the key to a successful marriage.

 

He hasn’t been communicating with Sanji though, not about this. They don’t talk about Sanji nearly dying and he doesn’t talk about knowing him. For a moment he hates Kaku for putting him in the position of knowing Sanji. If Sanji hadn’t been so badly hurt then his soul might not have reached out for Sanji sooner than it perhaps should have. But no, he can’t bring himself to feel that.

 

Zoro remembers the feeling of water in his lungs, of sunlight through water and the feeling of being exactly where he needed to be. He can’t wish that away and he’s sure that he can’t have just imagined that. But Baratians don’t have a concept for it and maybe it’s because they can’t experience it. He doesn’t know why, as far as he knows every other culture in the world does although some interpret it differently.

 

Maybe Sanji will never have that dream. Does that mean that Sanji will never feel that for him or will it just be a blur of loving and knowing for him? The thought of knowing Sanji and Sanji not knowing him back hurts him worse than any physical injury he’s ever felt.

 

He wonders if this is how Kaku feels. Even though he’s deluded Kaku still feels like his feelings for Zoro are love and not the sick obsession that they are. But no, Zoro’s feelings are love _and_ knowing and though he burns for those feelings to be returned he doesn’t feel entitled to Sanji feeling the same. He doesn’t want to find some way to force Sanji to have the dream.

 

Still, should he talk to Sanji about this or not? On the one hand there’s nothing for Sanji to do about it and the concept will probably be foreign to him forever. There’s a small possibility that Sanji might try to act like he feels exactly what Zoro does, not out of pity but out of Sanji’s stupid self-sacrificial drive. The idiot probably would stress himself out for life if he thought it’d spare Zoro’s heart. He likes to think that Sanji wouldn’t do that and that he’d be honest but he’s not sure enough to risk it. Besides, as he’s deciding to keep his mouth shut he figures that he’s not one to lecture on honesty.

 

His eyes snap reflexively to pale Baratian colours on the ground below and he spots Usopp and Franky down near the stables. Franky stands out anywhere but Usopp more or less blends in, his mixed heritage shows here. The pair of them are heading to the innermost castle wall by the stables and Zoro watches in mild interest until he sees a carriage round the corner, bearing the Baratian and Tsukian flags on it. Their supplies have finally arrived!

 

Zoro leaps to his feet with a smile on his face. Sanji will be incredibly pleased to have his clothes back even though Zoro thinks that his new ones look damn good. He should go help unload it and then take Sanji’s stuff back to their room. Even if Sanji never feels quite the same way about him as Zoro does, his happiness is still Zoro’s happiness.

 

He spends his afternoon hauling shit around. Some of it is Sanji’s belongings but a bunch of it is weird agricultural and sciency shit that Zoro has no idea what to do with. He ends up bringing it to Usopp who then gets him to find a new room for everything and set it all up there. Usopp goes into explanations about ‘propagation’ and ‘soil acidity’ and Zoro starts feeling really dumb.

 

People have been arriving in the city all day but most haven’t shown up at the castle or if they have they haven’t expected to see the King. Zoro’s father is a lot of things but overtly social isn’t one of them. There’s only one other man than Zoro who can ride up to the castle and come and see Mihawk and he’s the only one who would do it by kicking a door down with a cheer that scares the life out of two guards.

 

“Dad!” Zoro smiles, following the commotion after a guard fetched him to tell him of his other father’s arrival.

 

Shanks looks around and gives one of his traditional face splitting grins. He waves his one arm at him and Zoro waves back. He stops before him and he has a moment of weirdness, he wonders if Shanks is thinking of Sanji or their fight.

 

“I’m glad that you’re back.” He says warmly and Shanks laughs, clearly pleased.

 

“Good to see you too Zoro!” his dad laughs and ruffles Zoro’s hair the same way he always used to when Zoro was small, though he’s clearly not entirely stopped it.

 

“Shanks, I’m pleased to see you home safely.” Mihawk’s voice comes from behind Zoro and he turns to see his father sweeping elegantly down a staircase with his cape billowing. Zoro’s not sure that he’s ever moved elegantly in his life, or not outside of a fight at least. He looks sidelong at Shanks who is slouching and has a hand in his pocket casually, Zoro has a suspicion which of his parents he takes after more in that respect.

 

“Oh, did you miss me Hawky?” Shanks teases and Mihawk scowls.

 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it will pass soon enough.” Mihawk says flatly and Shanks just guffaws with loud laughter.

 

“I spoke with Whitebeard and Ace, along with his other officers. No one has any idea who might be behind this. Apparently Whitebeard had been concerned about a regular assassination attempt but he wouldn’t tell me more, I think he was just going on his gut. I figure I’ll keep my ears open at the feast but…” Shanks trails off.

 

“Thank you. Our intelligence here has proved no better.” Mihawk responds with a sigh, clearly he’d been hoping for an answer.

 

“Hey, come on, tactical discussions require drinking.” Shanks says, pulling a bottle out from under his own cloak.

 

“I’m not surprised.” Mihawk snorts but when Shanks holds hold bottle out more Mihawk’s face goes a little slack in surprise.

 

“This is Alabastan wine, how did you get this? You didn’t go that far.” Mihawk says in surprise.

 

“I bet someone for it and won. A drinking contest.” Shanks laughs and Zoro sees a small smile on his father’s face.

 

“It’s a good year.” His father adds and Zoro knows his father well enough to see that he is pleased and touched by the gift. Not because of its value which probably isn’t much and is nothing to a King, but at the the thought. And his dad just saw it and knew. He knew because… because Zoro’s parents _know_ each other.

 

Mihawk turns and gestures down the corridor, clearly intending on finding somewhere more private to drink. Zoro considers whether or not his father intends him to come too or if he just meant Shanks. The decision is made for him though when Shanks claps his arm around Zoro’s shoulders and pulls him along with him.

 

“How’s it been since I’ve been away?” Shanks asks brightly.

 

Zoro considers his answer.

 

“You missed father sparring with Sanji.” Zoro says and Shanks’ mouth curls into a sneaky smile.

 

“He kicked my hat off of my head, he’s quite fast.” Mihawk notes and Zoro buzzes inside with pride and a fierce desire to fight Sanji again himself.

 

“I wish I could have seen that.” Shanks remarks lightly and Zoro isn’t sure if he means anything more by it.

 

“Zoro has improved and I believe his fighting style has adapted slightly from training with the Prince.” Mihawk adds and Zoro glows at his words.  

 

The room that they settle on is one of the communal guard rooms, though no one is in at the moment. Zoro guesses that the squad of guards who use this area are all off working or else at home off shift. Shanks drops into a seat and uncorks the wine bottle with his teeth as Mihawk gathers glasses and inspects how clean they are. Seemingly satisfied he sits and pours three glasses of wine.

 

“So, you’ve spoken to the traitor yourself and you didn’t manage to scare an answer out of him?” Shanks asks curiously.

 

“No, and I’m reluctant to put him through any real pain. Anyone he accused would do doubt deny it and if he gave me a name to make pain stop it would be more likely to be false than true. And then say I arrest that person and do the same to them. Where would that end? I do not want to be a cruel and paranoid king.” Zoro’s father says firmly.

 

“Just make sure you’re a living king.” Shanks says after a few moments.

 

“He never said anything especially helpful to Robin or Nami and they’re the best people I could think of, even when Sanji talked to him on the trip we didn’t find anything. What did he say to you?” Zoro asks and sips his wine and savours the taste. He’s not fond of wine in particular, he prefers other kinds of alcohol usually, but wine from Alabaster is always excellent.

 

“Beyond saying that he would still be rewarded for his actions and that I would be the one executed and not him, nothing of note. But my assistant was present the whole time, she took notes I believe.” his father says calmly.

 

“Assistant? When did you get an assistant?” his dad asks, raising his scarred up eyebrow.

 

“She takes notes, keeps records, that sort of thing.” Mihawk says with a sigh and drinks.

 

“That didn’t answer that question at all.” Shanks replies but Mihawk doesn’t deign to answer that. Zoro feels like he has an itch in his brain. That assistant was there the whole time? And she was taking notes? He feels like there’s something that he’s not quite grasping. Maybe it’s in those notes.

 

“Father, her notes. Would they be in your study?” Zoro asks, getting to his feet.

 

“Yes. The red folder.” the King nods.

 

“Oh, Zoro.” Shanks says, pausing Zoro partway through turning towards the door.

 

“I heard that you agreed to some pretty specific execution methods for that man in order to get the King to let you take him back here.” Shanks continues.

 

“Yes. I’m going to blunt his swords before him and then behead him with them, slowly, then leave that monster’s body out so anyone who’s working with him can see what treason will get them.” Zoro can feel the anger bubbling up inside of him.

 

“You can’t do that.” Shanks says sharply that Zoro just stares.

 

“Even if Zoro hadn’t already made a binding agreement with another king you forget that man is guilty of treason of the highest order. Execution is the price for that crime.” Mihawk says tersely.

 

“Of course you have to execute him, I don’t mean that. I mean that you’ve stopped thinking about him as a person.” Shanks says with a shake of his head. He looks up at Zoro from his seat and Zoro finds himself pinned by that stare.

 

“He’s a traitor, a liar, he is weak, but he was also one of your knights, your friend and he’s a person. He’s all of those things. No matter how terrible the crime a person is still a person. If you think of them as less then you become less of a person yourself. You take his life because of what he did. When you kill a man outside of a battle, where you have a choice not to, you need to keep that in mind.” Shanks tells him.

 

Zoro’s mind runs over nights drinking with his nakama and his friends, Kaku among them. He remembers his stupid jokes and his smile. But he also remembers clutching Sanji’s blood soaked body to him and feeling the life draining out of him and the terrible things that Kaku has said since. Both sides of those are true.

 

“Shanks is right, you should mourn for this.” Mihawk agrees, speaking into his wine cup with his eyes closed. When Zoro doesn’t answer immediately he opens them and freezes Zoro with a look.

 

“You don’t have to worry about that.” he manages to make himself say.

 

“Good. You can take the notes if you want, just return them when you’re done.” his father says.

 

Zoro takes his wine glass and leaves, shutting the door behind him. He is pretty sure that his route to his father’s study should take his past the dungeon where Kaku is being held and yet he makes it there without ever having passed it. Zoro doesn’t regret that fact at all.

 

Mihawk’s study manages to exist in an kind of organised chaos. There are so many things in here and the room is almost overflowing with stuff and yet the place does not look untidy. The wall closest to the door is covered in weapons that were gifts and tokens from visitors and other important guests. To the side is a full wall sized bookcase filled with elegantly bound but well used books. Zoro knows from experience that they’re all reference books. They contain information about the geography of their continent, the population information for their country and the surrounding territories. There is a set of books on each culture’s fighting styles and tactics and the military history of Shimotsuki’s own encounters with them and that country’s engagements with others. Zoro has read most of these books for his schooling, there are copies of all of them in the library, and no doubt he’ll soon have to get back to studying.

 

Zoro knows that all of this information is what he’ll need when he is King he’ll use this to plan how to attack and defend from other countries and the knowledge here will inform his choices. He looks over the bookshelf and notes that there is only one book on Baratie and how they fight. He’s pretty sure that he read it once but it must have been a long time ago because he can only remember the very basics of what he read. He’s tempted to take it and read it again but he’s not dumb enough to take his father’s copy without asking, he’ll just get it from the library. In any case that’s not what he came here for.

 

He turns to the large imposing desk and stares for a moment at the huge painting above it. In it is a woman with long black braided hair and wearing formal Tsukian battle attire. Her expression is stern and made more so by her severe jawline and the gaze that seems to follow Zoro around the room, both traits shared by Mihawk. But Zoro can see himself in some of her other features though not many, whenever he looks at this painting he feels like Kureha must have taken more of his dad than his father when she was making him.

 

“Grandmother.” He mumbles and ducks his head. It’s stupid, she’s not here and he’s never even met her. She fought Mihawk when he turned sixteen and lost, unfortunately losing her life in the process. He feels sad for not knowing her, she was supposed to have been a great leader and warrior and he’s sad that Mihawk lost his mother at that age. No one knows who his father was and so he had no more family in the world. A weak part of Zoro is glad that he lost to his father on the fight on his sixteenth birthday. He could of course have beaten Mihawk without killing him and Zoro hopes that’s how that fight will go but it is hard to fight someone all out until the other cannot fight and yet not kill that person, at least if both people are of the same skill level. He needs to have surpassed his father before fighting him to prove it if he doesn’t want to run that very real risk.

 

Everything is so miserable today. Though it probably isn’t, really. It’s his outlook. He’s got this problem with Sanji and Kaku and then the feast coming up and he’s just feeling shit instead of doing anything about it. He picks up the file from the desk and checks inside it to make sure that it is the right file. Well, he’s going to do something about it now.

 

Zoro heads to the library afterwards and into the more boring records rooms, he gets the stiff librarian to hand over the reports from his knights. The captain of the royal knights was supposed to submit a report about any battles or military exercises. It had seemed like a good idea until the third report that Luffy had submitted which basically consisted of ‘we went here and then we fought a guy, here is a picture of me punching the guy. I don’t remember his name, he had a moustache.’ At the very least the pictures were amusingly terrible. Robin submits all of the reports now and sometimes they’re added to by Nami with geographical information.

 

“Nico Robin has already checked out and returned all of these.” The librarian says in a tone that suggests that because of this Zoro taking them out is a waste of his precious time. What this guy does when people aren’t trying to borrow things he doesn’t know. He probably licks the books or something. Zoro’s always disliked this asshole but there are a few perks to being a prince.

 

“I also wanted a book on Baratie.” Zoro says pleasantly.

 

“What one?” the librarian asks with a condescending sniff.

 

“Oh… I don’t know the name. I think it had a blue cover.” Zoro says calmly and the librarian looks like he wants to explode but instead stomps off to go find something matching that description.

 

“Wow, Sanji is a terrible influence on you.” A voice behind him snorts. Zoro turns to see a grinning Usopp there.

 

“That guy just pisses me off is all. What’re you doing here Usopp?” Zoro asks curiously.

 

“Oh I figured I’d find something to read. Sanji is cooking today and Franky’s getting a language lesson from Robin that’s honestly starting to feel a little weird being there for.” Usopp says with a slight grimace and Zoro makes a note to relay that information to Sanji who will no doubt be most interested in it.

 

“Well, we’ve got lots of military history, martial arts texts, information about other countries. There fiction and music over there.” Zoro offers and Usopp nods interestedly.

 

“What’re you reading?” Usopp asks, looking at the files.

 

“Oh, reports from Nami about all of the missions we went on. I want to see if I can work out where things went wrong with Kaku and maybe work out who got to him.” Zoro answers unhappily. What point in time did Kaku decide to betray him? How long had Zoro failed to notice?

 

“But that guy said that Robin had already read them, wouldn’t she have said if there was something there?” Usopp asks gently and Zoro wonders if it’s becoming obvious that he’s becoming desperate. He supposes that Usopp is nakama though, so he can likely read him better than most. Zoro wouldn’t be okay with this line of inquiry of he wasn’t nakama.

 

“Either it means that she thinks there’s nothing in there so it’s not worth telling me or she has some wild theory that needs more investigation first. Besides, she doesn’t know him like I do.” Zoro adds that last part with a touch of bitterness.

 

“Is this the book that you were looking for, my prince?” The librarian asks stiffly, returning with a blue book on Baratie in his hand.

 

“Yeah, sure. I’ll see you later Usopp.” Zoro says, suddenly not feeling in the mood for conversation. He takes the book and adds it to his stack of papers and files. He picks the whole thing up and carries it back to his rooms, leaving Usopp in the library with the disgruntled librarian and an empty wine glass.

 

Zoro lets himself into his rooms and sets his papers, files and book down on the table. He clears everything else off of the table and then starts sorting through things. It takes a bit of time but he separates out all of the files from before Kaku became a knight and sets them aside for now. It’s likely that they won’t be relevant but he supposes that he can’t discard the possibility that Kaku planned to betray him before he became a knight, though that feels unlikely if his motive was to somehow get Zoro to fall in love with him.

 

Zoro grabs paper to write his own notes on and then sits down to read. He begins with the notes from his father’s assistant. Mihawk was right, there really isn’t much here.

 

_Kaku: I’ve still held up my end of the bargain and… and if I can get out of here I’ll finish the job!_

_Mihawk: By killing the Prince of Baratie?_

_Kaku: Yes!_

_Mihawk: And your reward is supposed to be my son._

_Kaku: Yes._

_Mihawk: Tell me who you are in this agreement with. Who are you working for?_ _  
_ _Kaku: -no response-_

_Mihawk: Who are you working for?_

_Kaku: I can’t tell you. I- I won’t betray them. I kept my part of the deal! If I can just get out of here-_

 

_No further information of use._

 

Zoro frowns, it actually says that. No indication of what the ‘useless’ information was, just the statement that it wasn’t useful. In fact most of the interrogations end like that and his father never asks why Kaku says that he _can’t_ say who he’s working with.

 

Sanji must be right about Kaku being bait and Kaku is smart enough to know it too. The weird thing is it sounds like Kaku was trying to convince his father that he would never consider double crossing that person, only instead of being a boast it reads almost like it’s pleading. Like he was trying to prove his loyalty, but that doesn’t make any sense. And since when does Kaku speak like that? Was that fear just because it was the King speaking to him?

 

Perhaps the strange way his words look are because they were recorded by someone else. Maybe his father’s assistant isn’t very good at it, actually what does she-

 

She takes notes, keeps records, that sort of thing.

 

Zoro realises that his mind is starting to drift and he’s lost whatever train of thought he had. Damn. Well, he can always start on those reports and see if he can see anything in there. He reads and remembers adventures and missions, he makes notes and reads more. He works and works, looking for answers.

 

The scent of curry permeates his brain and he looks up. Sanji is standing at his side with plates and glasses and a bottle in his hands in a way that Zoro is sure shouldn’t be possible.

 

“Sanji.” He says in surprise. He wonders how long Sanji has been there but from the pissed off look on his face Zoro would guess a little while.

 

“Okay you can either move your shit off the table while these plates keep burning my hand or I can kick it all off, your choice.” Sanji says waspishly and Zoro jerks into action, moving piles of papers onto each other and onto the floor to make space.

 

Sanji sets everything down as Zoro moves more and more things out of the way. Sanji’s main plate has several smaller bowls on it and the smell coming from them makes Zoro’s stomach growl loudly enough to make Sanji stare at him.

 

“I guess I’m really hungry.” Zoro laughs a little and Sanji raises an eyebrow.

 

“Sounds like it. When did you eat last, I mean it’s not that late now is it?” Sanji asks and sets the wine bottle down.

 

“No. Just… thinking about I think I forgot to eat lunch.” he says trying to remember eating it, he really doesn’t. It was before lunch when he sat down with all of these papers and he hasn’t stopped or done anything else since. He did forget to eat.

 

Zoro looks at Sanji and the expression on his husband’s face is mean enough that Zoro wants to check that Sanji hasn’t somehow melted the skin off of his face with it.

 

“SIT. EAT.” Sanji forces the words out through gritted teeth and Zoro does just that. He’s not mixing Sanji with the idea of not eating again, that’s not smart.

 

“What were you so absorbed with that you forgot food of all things?” Sanji demands and angrily pours their drinks. Zoro didn’t know that it was possible to pour a drink angrily but Sanji apparently possesses that skill.

 

“Kaku.” Zoro answers and Sanji breathes out a deep sigh through his nose. He sets the glasses down and sits as well.

 

“You still have to eat. If you’re still hungry after this tell me and I’ll make you more.” Sanji says and starts helping himself from the array of bowls on the plate. Zoro was still expecting Sanji to chew him out for that but apparently his obsession with finding out answers about Kaku is understandable enough that Sanji will pardon him for now.

 

“So you made all of this then?” Zoro asks curiously, taking somewhat greedy portions of the chicken curry. He can’t help it though, he’s hungry and if this really is Sanji’s cooking then there’s nothing he’d rather eat more.

 

“Not all of it. The bread and the rice and this thing that I’ve forgotten the name of were other people, but the curry and this chickpea dish and the sauce for that with the vegetable that I don’t know what it’s called, those I helped with.” Sanji says, pointing to the dishes.

 

“This? This is okra.” Zoro says, holding up the green vegetable and biting into it.

 

“Okra. Huh… okay. That’s weird to say. Okra.” Sanji says thoughtfully as he tries the sound out in his mouth.

 

“So when are you taking over the kitchen then?” Zoro asks with a grin.

 

“I would never.” Sanji says crisply but Zoro doesn’t believe a word of it.

 

“Yeah okay, I bet you’ll be able to wait maybe a week or two before you start teaching them how to do things and then before I know it you’ll have your own private army armed with knives and fire.” Zoro snorts and Sanji grins catlike.

 

“Well when you make it sound like that much fun I’ve just got to. I won’t be cooking tomorrow though, it’s the feast and they don’t need a new person getting in the way of their… uh… their… pattern. That’s the wrong word. It’s like… in music or a dance where you have a…” Sanji waves his fork in the air, trying to grasp the word.

 

“A rhythm? A flow? Zoro suggests and Sanji shrugs.

 

They fall into eating and talking about the food, Zoro telling Sanji anything that he can think of about the origins for things or names of ingredients but he doesn’t have much help to offer at all. Sanji has either picked most of it up or Zoro simply doesn’t know the answer. He doesn’t know where exactly this kind of curry originated, or how okra is grown.

 

He sees Sanji’s gaze wandering over to all of Zoro’s papers and it’s clear that he’s curious though unusually for Sanji he’s not pressing it.

 

“I didn’t find anything new out if that’s what you’re wondering. There’s something there but I’m missing it.” Zoro says, feeling that same itch of almost grasping an idea but failing. It’s beyond frustrating.

 

“You’re never going to find an answer that makes what he did better.” Sanji says bluntly and Zoro has nothing to say to that. What could he say? Sanji is right. Kaku was a good person who took a terrible turn and has done something unforgivable. Zoro’s parents are right too, Kaku is still a person and still the man Zoro was friends with even though that friendship was a lie after a certain point.

 

“Yeah, I know.” he says with a nod. Sanji’s knee brushes against his under the table in a way that could be reassuring but also completely deniable if Zoro decided to point it out to him. That idiot.

 

“So, this feast tomorrow.” Sanji begins, changing the subject abruptly.

 

“What do I need to know? I’ve not seen Usopp or Robin all day so for all I know I have to get into a fistfight with every guest as a way of saying hello. I’m not doing that, these hands are too precious to me.” Sanji says, holding up his hands to his heart.

 

“You don’t have to fight everyone. In fact, it’d be best if you didn’t fight anyone. Or do, it’s up to you. Most of the people coming are high ranking warriors of great skill so you’re not automatically going to be one of the very best like you usually are.” Zoro warns him and Sanji squints at him.

 

“I’m not sure if there was a compliment in there or not.” Sanji says suspiciously and Zoro rolls his eyes.

 

“Shut up. It’s pretty simple. We don’t have a set time to arrive and we’re not formally announced like in your fancy things. People show up early and start drinking as soon as they can, there’s music and dancing the whole time and food comes out whenever it’s done.” he tells Sanji who looks a little uneasy at the prospect.

 

“But… how are you supposed to know what you should be doing?” Sanji asks uncertainly.

 

“You’re a prince, dumbass. Very few people get to tell you what to do. Just don’t piss off my father or flirt with the guests like you want them to be your nakama and you’ll be fine.” Zoro shrugs and eats the last of his food.

 

“I wouldn’t flirt with your guests in any way.” the other man sniffs in offence and stacks some empty bowls up onto each other.

 

“You flirt with practically everyone. I’ll be stunned if half the kitchen staff don’t have awkward nakama crushes on you by now.” he snorts, remembering Sanji’s obliviousness to the boundaries to friends and nakama, a distinction that he’s pretty sure Sanji still doesn’t fully get.

 

“Hah, you should hear what your guards say.” Sanji snickers and takes the rest of the plates, stacking them up and walking towards the door with them.

 

“What do they say?” he asks suspiciously. He knows that Sanji is still letting the guards think that he can’t understand them but he still has no idea why he would do that. Sanji doesn’t answer but instead just opens the door and hands the dishes and plates to one of the previously mentioned guards.

 

“Sanji!” Zoro demands as the blond laughs and walks into the next room alone, their bedroom in fact.

 

“I’m sorry I can’t hear you, I’m in another room.” Sanji shouts back. Zoro grits his teeth and follows Sanji.

 

When he gets in the bedroom he sees Sanji standing in front of the open wardrobe with his face a perfect picture of bright excitement and joy.

 

“Your things arrived today.” Zoro tells him and Sanji still looks too pleased for his ‘no shit, really?’ look that he gives Zoro to hold any weight.

 

“Ohh all my nice things are here again and just in time too. I was worried that I was going to have to harass that tailor again.” Sanji says, running his hand over his clothes.

 

“It is his job, I’m sure he doesn’t mind. A real Tsukian loves a challenge.” he says confidently.

 

“Looked like he wanted to maim me with his scissors more like.” Sanji snorts and holds a shirt up to himself.

 

“Remember that you need to leave your marks exposed.” he says, eyeing the sleeve of Sanji’s shirt. It hangs way too low for what Zoro needs to paint. Sanji grunts in absent minded agreement and puts the shirt back to hold up another, he freezes with the fabric halfway to his body and looks up at Zoro.

 

“Marks? As in several?” Sanji asks in surprise.

 

“I had this conversation with Luffy and talked to my father about it, the dragon counts.” Zoro insists.

 

“Fine, I beat Kaku which gives me one, we all beat the dragon which I guess is two, then I lost to Kaku again. That puts me down to one in total.” Sanji says, holding his fingers up to illustrate his point as if Zoro is especially stupid.

 

“You didn’t lose to Kaku, trust me, that wasn’t a loss.” Zoro assures his husband who looks unconvinced.

 

Sanji looks like he’s going to argue with him on this but Zoro is prepared to grind Sanji into the ground over this point because he deserve those marks and Zoro’s not going to let him take them away from himself. Instead he just shuts his half of the wardrobe and shakes his head.

 

“Well what about you? You’re up one now aren’t you? Thirty six, finally divisible by three again. But I’m either going to have to start painting smaller or you’re going to have to start wearing less. Not that I’d complain.” Sanji says with a hint of a purr in his voice and a look that hints at just how much he wouldn’t mind.

 

“I’m not going shirtless in front of that crowd, it’ll look like I’m overcompensating for you. Trying to boast that I don’t need armor to distract people from paying attention to you.” Zoro says with a shake of his head.

 

“You’re saying that people shouldn’t be paying attention to me?” Sanji challenges with a scowl.

 

“No, I’m saying that I don’t want people to think that I’m ashamed of you. If they think I am then they’ll figure there’s a reason to be when there isn’t.” He’s a little worried that his words don’t make sense to even a native speaker, let alone Sanji.

 

“Well, I don’t care what your guests think of me. People can say what they like, I don’t care.” the blond says haughtily and folds his arms.

 

“You don’t care what people think of you?” Zoro asks challengingly.

 

“No.” Sanji asserts confidently.

 

“And your cousin and my dad…?” Zoro asks lightly.

 

“Shut your face, stupid marimo. I’m going to shower so that my skin is clean for painting and I can think about how I’m going to paint you.” Sanji says with a huff and peels off his shirt. He then throws it in Zoro’s face and leaves for the shower both dramatic and shirtless. Zoro paid more attention to the shirtless part. All that pale skin… Maybe he could just follow Sanji and get another look?

 

Zoro hesitates for a few moments before following Sanji. When he comes into their shower room the water is already running and steam is lightly misting the ceramic tiles. He lets his eyes run over the curve of Sanji’s spine and the almost luminescent paleness of his skin. He sees the play of strong muscles under his skin as Sanji reaches his arms up and unclasps his necklace. Even this relaxed motion shows how strong his muscles are from all of his handstands and springs.

 

He steps forward and places his hands ever so lightly on Sanji’s hips and softly kisses Sanji’s bare shoulder.

 

“If you’re hoping to get lucky I have bad news for you.” Sanji says in Baratian and laughs. He twists a little and drops his necklace on the stone surround of the sink.

 

“Why would I be lucky? I don’t need luck.” Zoro says with a frown. Where did luck come from? That was the right translation wasn’t it? Luck?

 

Sanji looks at him suspiciously for some reason but seems to let it go. Zoro thinks that he might have missed an idiom or something there. He steps out of the rest of his clothes, sending Zoro’s heart rate skyrocketing only to throw said clothes in Zoro’s face and saunter into the shower. Zoro drops Sanji’s clothes on the floor and idly picks up his necklace from the side of the sink.

 

“I’m trying to think about what pattern to do on you. Sets of three for sure but I’m not sure what else. Do you have any bright ideas?” Sanji asks over the sound of the water.

 

Zoro picks up Sanji’s necklace and holds it up before his eyes. The stone seems cold somehow, even though the metal is warm from Sanji’s skin. It’s even bluer than Sanji’s eyes are, the deepest parts of it are a deep dark colour that’s verging on black and yet the surface is a sparkling pale blue. His mind instantly flashes to the place in Sanji’s soul that’s water. The place in the rock lined chasm of waters that are varied and wild and the shark that lives within them. He takes his attention from it and looks at Sanji through the steamed glass that protects the rest of the room from water splatter.

 

“What was wrong with what you did last time? I liked that.” He says, a touch defensively. He’s never going to lose the memory of Sanji painting him for the first time and he never wants to. He’s not an especially sentimental person but that design is important to him because of that memory.

 

“I can do better.” Sanji insists and Zoro rolls his eyes, that’s Sanji all over.

 

Zoro opens his mouth to say something but he’s starting to get an itching feeling at the back of his mind, as if he’s forgotten to do something. He polished his swords today and didn’t forget to put anything back, he didn’t forget to bring any files from the library and he did have anything else to do today. What did he forget? The ink for tonight? The oil? Zoro walks out into their bedroom and takes the kit out of the cupboard it’s kept in, still holding Sanji’s necklace as he does so. Everything is in it and where it should be.

 

Zoro taps the cold stone against his temple as if he can lodge the memory free. What has he forgotten?

 

His mind flashes to the files, the one recorded by that woman. He strides into the main room and looks at the scattered papers. He spots the file that has the interviews that she noted down. Kaku was trying to prove his loyalty and-

 

Zoro puts the necklace down and picks up the file with both hands. He opens it and stares.

 

What was he doing again? He looks over the file, there’s nothing helpful in it.

 

“What’re you doing?” Sanji asks him and Zoro turns to see Sanji standing there with a towel around his waist and a frown on his face.

 

“I… thought I had something, but it’s nothing.” he answers with a shake of his head.

 

“This is really getting to you, huh?” Sanji says and it’s not really a question. Zoro groans and rubs his hands through his hair, it really must be.

 

“An idea came to me, I want to do stripes. Solid colour, I think.” Sanji says brightly.

 

“Sounds good.” Zoro says with a slightly tense smile. Sanji picks his necklace back up and leads them back to the bedroom. He changes into the bottom half of his bedclothes and slides his necklace back on, seemingly satisfied that his hair is dry enough that it’s not going to drip too much water onto it.

 

“Have you got clothes and shoes that will leave this bare here?” Sanji asks, effortlessly raising a leg so that he can touch his own calf in a gesture of explanation. Zoro mentally runs through his clothes. He’s got shoes that are low enough that they’ll show as low as his ankles, Robin got them for him when she was first teaching him the basics of stealth. The soles of the shoes are soft enough that he can barely be heard. He’s also got trousers that cut off just past his knee, though he can’t place when he got those exactly he knows he’s had them for years and he tends to only wear them when the heat is too humid for regular clothes.

 

“Yeah, I do.” Zoro agrees and Sanji’s cunning smile widens.

 

“Excellent. Sit your ass down and I’m gonna start painting you. You’re going first this time because my wrist started cramping up from trying not to smudge the ink I had on last time.” Sanji orders him and for a change Zoro is happy to do just what Sanji says, if anything will distract him from the mess that is the situation with Kaku it’ll be Sanji.

 

Sanji settles down on the firm mattress to Zoro’s side with the box of painting supplies in his hands, evidently he’d found where Zoro had left them after checking them. He feels the warmth of Sanji’s body seep from Sanji to him where their legs are pressed together and the warm points of contact when Sanji touches Zoro’s shoulder.

 

“I was thinking here, and here and then…” Sanji continues as his hands move over Zoro’s body, demonstrating the placement of each set of three stripes. A set of three over Zoro’s shoulder joints on each side, then his upper biceps. Two sets of three on each forearm, upper and lower part add to his total of twenty four.

 

“I was thinking of changing your face ones though, they’d get thinner as they got closer to the middle of your cheek though.” Sanji explains and traces three thin lines on each of Zoro’s cheeks with his finger.

 

“And then three on each leg?” Zoro guesses and Sanji nods.

 

“Go for it.” Zoro tells him and Sanji opens the bottle of ink with an expression of excitement on his face.

 

Zoro rests a hand on Sanji’s knee as his husband begins to paint. The stripes are interesting, they don’t wrap around his arms like the bands from before and instead only cover about half of his arm, leaving the insides bare. They’re thick in the middle and fade into a thin delicate line at their points, a move tricky enough that Sanji seems to have to poke his tongue out slightly to get the focus.

 

“If you laugh I’m going to screw this up!” Sanji eventually snaps in irritation.

 

“Then stop looking so stupid!” Zoro laughs, safe now that the paintbrush is away from his skin. He pokes his tongue out and mimics Sanji’s absurd expression.

 

The blonde’s expression burns and his eyes narrow. Zoro has probably got his mind mixed up somewhere or at least his survival instincts are because when he sees Sanji looking like that it makes him want to get closer instead of back off.

 

He leans into Sanji’s space a little warily, just because Sanji looking annoyed makes him feel like this doesn’t mean that Sanji isn’t, well, annoyed. He kisses Sanji and the displeased sound from Sanji’s throat would be enough to make Zoro back off if Sanji wasn’t kissing him back, the idiot is just pretending like it bothers him.

 

Dumbass.

 

Zoro has to remind himself of his right arm being wet with ink and trying not to have it near Sanji, but it’s difficult when he wants to pull the other man into his lap.

 

“For someone complaining about how I look you don’t seem to be too bothered by it.” Sanji says a little breathlessly, catching Zoro’s hand and pulling at it to bring his marked up arm closer.

 

“I’m used to your flaws.” Zoro replies with a smirk.

 

“I don’t _have_ any flaws. I’m perfect.” Sanji says with a preening tone of voice and Zoro just snorts in amusement.

 

“Unless having the kind of temper that would make me poke you in the eye with this paintbrush is a flaw in which case I might just develop a flaw for you.” Sanji says through gritted teeth and Zoro laughs and kisses him again. Sanji sighs in irritation but doesn’t protest.

 

“Stop distracting me.” Sanji says firmly and starts painting again. Zoro knows that Sanji means that at least. He wonders when he started being able to pick that up accurately.

 

The pair of them sit quietly and Zoro watches Sanji paint. His fingers are precise and delicate and completely sure in themselves. Despite being right handed Sanji is using his left hand just as much to steady Zoro’s arm or to move him and tilt him just so. It reminds him of when he’s seen Sanji work with a knife when he cooks, something which is just as much art as this is, if not more.

 

Zoro opens his mouth as an idea forms. He wants to tell Sanji that sometimes people scar tattoos into themselves, with knives or by branding them in. They’re not marks like these of course, marks for victories like this have to be temporary by nature. He wants to tell Sanji that he’d let him scar a design into him with a knife because he trusts him that much and like the idea of having something on him forever that was put there by Sanji’s hands. But then his eyes land on Sanji’s neck and the knife scar and surrounding burn, neither of which Sanji truly agreed to and thinks that perhaps Sanji wouldn’t take Zoro’s statement the way that Zoro means it.

 

“What? And if you say it’s nothing then you’re going to have to explain that stupid open mouthed expression on your stupid face.” Sanji warns him and arches a questioning eyebrow at him.

 

“You’re an asshole, I was _going_ to say…” Zoro hesitates and then looks down at Sanji’s brush on his arm. He can go for half of the truth.

 

“I was going to say that I really like when you do this.” Zoro finishes.

 

“Well, I like it too. I hate the idea that I’m going to fuck it up and you’re going to be stuck with messy lines for weeks but… I like it.” Sanji confesses and his head is tilted downwards and to the side a little so that he can see what he’s painting but it does mean that Zoro can’t see his face. He suspects that’s no accident on Sanji’s part.

 

The solid stripes that Sanji makes reminds Zoro of animal stripes. He considers asking Sanji if they have things like tigers in Baratie but he doesn’t think they’re much for dangerous wildlife there beyond maybe a wolf or a bear. That said they do have dragons there so who know what surprises his new home country has in store for him.

 

When Sanji paints the stripes on his face they all radiate out from the same point at the edge of his cheek by his ear, just below where his cheekbone starts. Each points at a different angle, almost like hours on a clock face and they trail into fine points by the time they get level with the middle of his eye on each side. The really weird part comes when Sanji shoves him back and paints the last six stripes on the back of his ankles and the bottom of his legs. Despite all of his years painting his own marks he’d never thought to do his legs. It’s unusual and interesting.

 

When Sanji finishes he realises just how peaceful he had become through the whole process. He had nothing else he should have been doing, no pressure to talk or to behave in a certain way, he wasn’t even thinking about Kaku’s betrayal.

 

“Did you even think about this before you met me? Or before the whole proposal was made?” Sanji asks curiously and hand the paintbrush over. Evidently Sanji’s mind wasn’t so quiet.

 

“Having someone painting me you mean?” Zoro asks, trying to find a position that he can sit in to reach Sanji’s wrist without making him sit awkwardly but also without damaging his still drying marks.

 

“Yeah, or being married or any of this.” Sanji nods.

 

“No. My parents aren’t married and no one even knows who my grandfather was, so it’s not like I ever thought much about marriage. I just figured if it happened it happened.” Zoro answers and pulls Sanji’s wrist closer, turning it this way and that so that he can mentally plan out the space that he needs.

 

“I can’t imagine thinking like that.” Sanji says and Zoro pauses. Their cultures are different and so are they. So Sanji used to dream about being married to a perfect person and Zoro can’t stop wishing that Sanji knew him back. Both are equally pointless.

 

“I prefer what I have.” He says simply and this time Sanji does go red. Zoro laughs at his reaction, Sanji’s the romance obsessed one here but whenever Zoro says anything like that back it’s Sanji whose face burns.

 

“Shut up!” Sanji snaps at him. Zoro suppresses his laugher and starts to paint. He only just catches the quiet ‘me too’ that Sanji mumbles a few minutes later.

 

Zoro paints the first band of waves on Sanji’s wrist, the same as he did before, only this time there are two more bands above it, each higher up Sanji’s arm. He can’t help but wonder how long it’ll take Sanji to get to the same sort of number that Zoro is at. In the last year or two Zoro’s number hasn’t varied more than five in any direction, though he’s at the top end of that now. His numbers very much reflected his skill in combat and his disposition towards fighting people. It would make sense for Sanji’s number to climb quickly, the idiot was whining about the heat yesterday and said that he’d kick the sun out of the sky if he could for being too hot. He’s no doubt going to rack up marks soon enough. Zoro’s mouth curls into a smile as he envisions Sanji with the same number of marks as him, he imagines how people will look at him in awe and fear.

 

They talk lazily about other things, trying to stay awake long enough for the ink to dry as much as possible before they shower and fall asleep together.

  
  
  
  
  


Zoro is innocently tying the sash around one of his nicer pieces of formal armor when Sanji comes out of the bathroom, having finished whatever possibly magic thing it is he does to his hair, when Sanji sees him and vaults the bed to stare at him.

 

“Are you wearing WHITE?!” Sanji exclaims in glee and pulls at Zoro’s undershirt.

 

Zoro’s armor is brown and black leather with a far nicer and luxurious middle to it of golds and greens that he was just fastening on. However, wearing leather like this on bare skin isn’t the best of ideas unless the smell of sweat soaked leather appeals. So underneath he’d worn a thin undershirt, which is a different colour.

 

“It’s not white it’s grey, and I got this in a tournament a few years ago!” Zoro protests, pushing Sanji back. In truth it had been grey but somehow it had lightened during washing and bleached in the sun and is closer to white than they grey it was before.

 

“No, no, that is white. You’re finally coming around to the colour.” Sanji grins.

 

“No I’m not, and shut up, you’re barely dressed. I’ll leave without you.” Zoro threatens and ties the last knot on his armor.

 

“Pft, even if you left now you’d probably get lost and we’d arrive at the same time.” Sanji laughs and Zoro shoves him onto the bed. The dumb blond is so far just wearing these blue silk trousers that shift from lighter to darker whenever Sanji moves in the right way. Oddly enough Sanji’s skin seems to be changing in tone slightly as he breathes. Zoro looks at his hand and sees a slight silver sheen on his skin, he tilts it this way and that and it appears and disappears.

 

“What’s the point of this stuff, no one else is going to see it. It’s not like you’re going to be shirtless, right?” Zoro asks dubiously.

 

“You sound conflicted about whether I should be or not.” Sanji smirks and Zoro rolls his eyes. He is absolutely not conflicted at all. Within their bedroom he is more than happy to look at Sanji shirtless or indeed missing any other amount of clothes. However, he is not going to show up at the feast shirtless. That’s a dumb brag that Sanji really doesn’t need to make. Whitebeard can show up shirtless but he’s so huge and muscled that Zoro could probably fit his whole body in the man’s chest. The number of people who stand even a chance at beating Whitebeard in a fair fight are probably limited to Zoro’s father and maybe two other people. Sanji cannot boast the same reputation.

 

“Not at all, go put some clothes on.” He tells his smug looking husband who obligingly rolls off of the bed and pulls some clothes out of their wardrobe. He slides a thin white sleeveless shirt on over his slightly silver highlighted body and then wraps a blue and white waistcoat around it. The thing is uneven lengths and buttons on the side with a pointless sheer blue ruffle of fabric at his left hip. It’s pale blue and white with a waterlily pattern on it. It’s so frivolous and pointless prettiness that it couldn’t be from anywhere but Baratie. The closest thing to a pattern that Zoro’s clothes have on them is a criss crossed design at the hem of his knee length trousers, beyond that it’s just dots of colours in the edges of his clothes. Nothing he has is as detailed as Sanji’s clothes. Even now Sanji is sliding on a garment that seems just be sleeves and nothing else, it’s pointless both in design because Sanji could have just worn something else had had sleeves and it’s overdone in pattern, being covered in two-tone blue ripples.

 

“Baratian fashion is weird.” Zoro says flatly and Sanji glares at him.

 

“At least we _have_ fashion. Anyway, look at me, I’m trying to adapt to your culture. I’m not wearing any white.” Sanji says as he slides on some quite clearly white and blue knee length boots.

 

“Yes you are! Your boots and your… whatever that thing is. A waistcoat? This, with the flowers.” Zoro says, reaching over and running his fingers over the expensive feeling fabric.

 

“Oh this? No, this is a pearl colour and these boots are grey. You know, like your shirt.” Sanji says lightly and effortlessly whips his foot up and presses it into Zoro’s chest so the toe of his white boots are pressed against Zoro’s undershirt. The one that definitely isn’t white despite being… exactly the same shade as Sanji’s boots.

 

“I hate you sometimes.” Zoro says without much feeling and pushes a laughing Sanji back.

 

“Oh, only sometimes? I must not be doing a good job! I’ll try harder.” he sniggers as if he’s the funniest person alive. Zoro reminds himself that throwing Sanji out of the window would only be momentarily satisfying. He’d probably land and be just fine and then he’d be _really_ angry at him.

 

Zoro sighs and turns to go out of the door and head to the feast but Sanji’s voice stops him.

 

“Let me just do one last thing and then we can go.” Sanji calls and Zoro pauses.

 

Sanji is standing before the mirror at their wardrobe, fussing with something at his chest. He guesses he’ll have to wait until Sanji is done. He looks at Sanji’s turned back and notices that his hair is tucked into the back of the collar on his shirt. It’s a raised collar but it’s not that high, but his hair is still stuck inside it.

 

He walks over to Sanji and gently frees his hair from the back of his shirt, careful not to pull at the delicate strands of metal chain from his crown. He lets the longer silky blond hair flow through his fingers thoughtfully.

 

“Oh, thanks.” Sanji says distractedly. He’s trying to fasten some delicate looking flower ornament to his waistcoat.

 

“I didn’t realise how long your hair had become.” Zoro remarks as he strokes through the impossibly bright yellow hair.

 

“Hair does this thing where it grows, but you have moss so maybe you don’t know that.” Sanji snorts, still fiddling with the flower.

 

“You know, if you wanted it cut I could find the barber who cuts our hair. He’s got to be around, I’m sure he’d do yours quickly.” Zoro offers and Sanji nearly drops the flower ornament completely and fumbles to catch it. Zoro looks at Sanji in the mirror in surprise, Sanji’s not one to be clumsy with his hands. They’re shaking, he can see the pearls on the stalks of the flower vibrating with the movement.

 

“Sanji?” Zoro asks warily.

 

“Don’t… laugh. I don’t want anyone putting any kind of blade near my head of my throat ever again, even if it’s to cut my hair. I just…” Sanji’s voice trails off and when he swallows the movement makes his scar shift slightly.

 

Sanji thinks that he’s being weak, that admitting that nearly dying like that makes him averse to something similar is pathetic. Yet Sanji trusts him with that knowledge, as if he knows him. Goddamnit.

 

“That makes sense. If… you trusted me to do it then I could. Only if you wanted. I know how to, I usually cut my own hair.” He suggests.  

 

“Until that last part I was considering it. Like fuck am I letting you cut my hair so I look like you.” Sanji laughs a little weakly and Zoro shoves him and makes him face him.

 

“You asshole.” Zoro mutters but he doesn’t care because Sanji is smiling again, even if it’s still a bit unsteady. Perhaps he could see later if he can convince Sanji to go to Chopper if his fear is still bothering him so much. He remembers that when Perona was young she was really traumatised over being one of the last survivors from her country and she had to see a doctor about it. Before his duel with his father when he was sixteen Mihawk had told him that if he won by killing Mihawk then he should do the same, Mihawk had to when he won against his mother. It makes sense that Sanji might need to from this too.

 

But… he suspects that if he brings that up now Sanji might stab him with that flower ornament. He’s weirdly touchy sometimes. He takes it from Sanji and fastens it in place.

 

He’ll change the subject.

 

“What’s the purpose of that flower anyway? It doesn’t hold anything in place.” He challenges.

 

“It looks nice, idiot. Anyway, my cousin made it for me one summer. We went diving and I got the pearls myself.” Sanji boasts as they start to leave together.

 

“Aren’t pearls hard to get?” Zoro asks with a frown. Honestly he doesn’t really know where they come from beyond some kind of sea creature.

 

“Well, they’re pretty deep down but I’m a great diver. You know how long I can hold my breath for.” Sanji tells him with a shrug.

 

“Oh, so it’s like a trophy.” Zoro nods in understanding.

 

“Sometimes you’re so Tsukian it hurts.” Sanji sighs and leaves their rooms. Out in the hallway their nakama are waiting for them in their fine outfits.

 

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Zoro demands and follows him, Sanji smiles slyly at him and refuses to answer.

 

“Franky! You’re wearing trousers! I’m so proud.” Sanji laughs happily and elbows the large man.

 

“Oh rub it in why don’t you.” Franky grumbles but at least he seems to be pleased with his large blue jacket with black and white stars on it.

 

“Ready?” Nami asks, sauntering over in her green silk dress. It’s cut incredibly low on her chest, distractingly low in fact. That distraction has been the last thing that many people have seen before things have gone horribly wrong for them.

 

“Yeah, come on.” Zoro agrees and their group heads off to the feast, with Luffy and his hungry stomach leading the way.

 

Zoro has always liked the way the great hall looks during a feast. The room is lit only by great burning torches on the walls and the large iron chandelier hanging from the ceiling. There are no candles on the tables because those are so frequently knocked over in fights or general boisterous behaviour. The room is an audio mash of voices and laughing with everyone trying to shout over everyone else.

 

The layout of the room is planned chaos too, tables of all shapes, sizes and heights are around the place with no real order of where people should sit. The only places that are ever reserved are Zoro’s and Mihawk’s, technically anyone could sit where Shanks is sitting as he’s not royalty, but people never take his seat. Though from now on there’s another reserved place, Sanji’s.

 

The place is all so starkly different from Baratian formal affairs. Zoro did like some things about Sanji’s culture's way of throwing a party, they did it with _style_ that’s for sure, but he much prefers this. This is fun and this is home.

 

Sanji on the other hand is looking with wide eyes, seemingly frozen to the spot as he stares out across the hall. Franky’s expression is equally lost but he can see interest and excitement starting to build. Usopp on the other hand looks like he’s going to pass out from glee.

 

“It’s even better than I read about!” Usopp gasps.

 

“Well, no sense waiting.” Sanji asserts and walks into the room before any of the rest of them. Zoro follows and immediately people recognise him and call out to him in greeting. Some wave and a few try to beckon him over but Zoro has to see his father first.  

 

“Come on.” Zoro says as he passes Sanji, jabbing him with his elbow as he passes. Sanji follows and mutters some vague threat at him that Zoro doesn’t even bother to listen to.

 

“Father.” Zoro greets and bows as he stops before his father’s place at his table, Sanji does the same without even being prompted.

 

“Zoro, Prince Sanji. It’s good to see you. Robin was just telling me what this sort of event would be like in Baratie, it sounds starkly different.” Mihawk says, looking at Sanji. Behind Mihawk Robin smiles a small greeting at Zoro and he responds in kind.

 

“Well, it does look different.” Sanji agrees and looks over his shoulder at the room.

 

“But I’m looking forward to it.” he adds pleasantly and Zoro is pretty sure that he’s being sincere.

 

“Good, eat and drink at your leisure. Enjoy.” Mihawk says with a nod.

 

“Oh, and Zoro. If you’re looking for Shanks he’s over in that corner of the room talking with Tashigi.” Zoro’s father says and Zoro’s spine snaps straight.

 

“I just remembered that I want to be anywhere else but there. Come on Sanji, let’s get a drink.” He says quickly and pulls Sanji away by the arm.

 

“Who are you avoiding?” Sanji asks curiously.

 

“Hopefully you’ll never have to find out. Alcohol! Here you go.” he says brightly and presses a glass into Sanji’s hand and fills it with wine. Sanji isn’t looking at him though, he’s looking at the group of people watching them. It’s several of Whitebeard’s people and they’re all staring at Sanji with varying levels of curiosity.

 

Zoro suspects that Sanji had hoped to not be the centre of attention this evening, Zoro also knows that that hope was in vain. After all the feast is in honour of their return and their new marriage, of course people would pay attention to Sanji. Plus, he’s unusual in other respects. The white in his clothing makes his stand out along with his bright gold hair, it’s as if a beam of light is following him around the room making him that might brighter and lighter than his surroundings. No wonder people are staring.

 

“I’ve never actually seen a Baratian before.” Jozu’s loud voice rings out, making Sanji jump in alarm and several of Whitebeard’s crew laugh.

 

“Holy fuck you are huge.” Sanji remarks under his breath in Baratian as he looks up at Jozu who is more than twice Sanji’s height. And then, because Sanji has no sense of self preservation, he says it in Tsukian too. Thankfully Jozu seems to take it well and laughs. Zoro is glad because he doesn’t really know the man. He knows that he is, as Sanji reported, huge but other than that he knows little more about him aside from the fact that he is one of Whitebeard’s subordinates.

 

“You’re kind of tiny and skinny.” Jozu shoots back.

 

“In comparison to you, maybe.” Sanji laughs.

 

“Zoro! Have you seen Ace? I have to warn him!” Luffy exclaims, rushing up behind Zoro and running into his back, wrapping his rubber arms around Zoro’s shoulders.

 

“What’s wrong Luffy?” Sanji asks, turning from Jozu to face Luffy and Zoro.

 

“Yeah, what’s up?” Ace asks, appearing from behind Jozu with a chicken leg stuffed in his mouth. The main meal of the evening hasn’t even started so goodness knows where he managed to snaffle that from.

 

“Garp is here! He said that he’s gonna smack our heads together!” Luffy exclaims, leaping from Zoro and clinging to his brother with wide eyes.

 

“Who’s Garp?” Sanji asks in bewilderment.

 

“He’s Luffy’s grandfather and was sort of involved in raising the two of them.” he explains for Sanji who nods in understanding.

 

“Barely involved.” Ace snorts derisively and Zoro has no interest in opening that wound, sympathetic friend or not.

 

“Yeah! He’s old and mean!” Luffy declares loudly.

 

“And… and this Garp guy, is he tall?” Sanji asks thoughtfully.

 

“Taller than us, but not as tall as Whitebeard or Jozu here.” Ace answers.

 

“And does he have a beard, like this?” Sanji questions further, gesturing at his own face for a full moustache and beard. Zoro knows that Garp in fact does have that style of beard. He scans the crowd and sees Garp coming towards them from behind the two brothers.

 

“Yeah! Right over his old, stupid face!” Luffy laughs. Oh boy.

 

“What about a scar, just here?” Sanji runs his finger over the edge of his eye socket. Garp looms up behind Luffy and Ace and the two men seem to realise at the same moment exactly who is there and they both look up uneasily.

 

“Brats!” Garp shouts and smacks their heads together which turns out significantly worse for Luffy as the impact with Ace seems to have switched his devil’s fruit on as a knee-jerk reaction and now Luffy’s hair is on fire. Ace is trying to help by slapping him on the head.

 

“The head of the prince’s Royal Guard everyone.” Sanji says under his breath and Zoro glares at him. Garp and the two brothers are all arguing loudly and gesturing with flailing limbs so none of them heard. It’d be easier to be annoyed if Sanji didn’t have a point, Luffy and Ace hardly look intimidating. By the time the two of them do it’s usually far too late to back out of whatever someone has provoked them into. Although tonight it’s easier to tell because both Ace and Luffy are covered in marks to show the fights that they’ve won and both counts are substantial indeed.

 

A servant walks by with a tray of food and Zoro and Sanji manage to snag some for themselves before the poor bastard gets too close to Luffy, Ace and Garp and is nearly eaten alive. At least their fight stopped.

 

“I’m gonna go find Franky, he’s probably lost around so many people who don’t speak his language.” Sanji says and walks off without a backwards glance. Zoro has to say that he’s a little impressed. He’s no coward but at his first ball with Sanji’s people he felt at a loss around so many strange people and customs but Sanji doesn’t seem phased. Sanji’s certainly watching everything with a curious eye but he remains unruffled.

 

“He’s kind of skinny looking though, isn’t he? Like you could break him over your knee.” Jozu says in what he probably thinks is a tone too quiet for Zoro to hear.

 

“Baratians are like that.” Garp says with a shrug and Zoro glares at him.

 

“Tch, yeah, Kaku said that too.” Ace snorts derisively and the pair look at him in surprise.

 

“Kaku as in one of Zoro’s knights?” Garp asks in obvious surprise.

 

“He betrayed us, he tried to kill Sanji.” Luffy explains grimly and though Zoro is hurt by Kaku’s betrayal Luffy is clearly deeply pained by it too. Kaku was one of his knights too, Luffy is the captain and he was in charge.

 

“Yeah, Whitebeard all asked us about him and if we knew why he’d turn like that or who could have done it. Mihawk will probably be asking you too, Garp.” Jozu nods.

 

“Hm, no idea. But if you idiots were supposed to be protecting him and he still nearly died then he can’t be that strong.” Garp says and looks accusingly at Luffy and Ace. A ripple of fire runs up Ace’s spine, the irritation clear and Zoro won’t be surprised if this comes to blows at this rate.

 

“Well I’m interested in hearing this, all I heard was that Ace saved his life and gave him that scar.” Izo, one of Whitebeard’s other high ranking officers says, appearing beside Garp. Several more people have appeared and the conversation is clearly all on Sanji.

 

“Shut up all of you!” Luffy barks and his voice carries, silencing the whole group for at least a moment or two.

 

“Sanji beat Kaku in a duel without even breaking a sweat and then Kaku snuck up behind him with a knife weeks later and cut his throat open. He was bleeding to death and he still got up and kicked Kaku so hard that he smashed through three trees, caught fire from the power of it and caved in his rib cage. All of that when he was bleeding to death!” Luffy shouts, his fists clenched.

 

“And then I melted my knife hot enough to burn his skin together and stopped him bleeding and he didn’t make a sound either! Then he lived the whole night it took to ride at full speed to Drum, through the snow!” Ace adds loudly.

 

“He’s my nakama, you don’t get to call him weak!” Luffy adds challengingly, almost daring his grandfather to do so.

 

“You gonna fight me, brat?” Garp laughs and Zoro knows why. Luffy is strong, probably stronger than Zoro is and he’s not ashamed to admit it, at least in sheer power. Garp though is older, stronger and more skilled than Luffy by far. If Luffy challenged Garp to a fight he’d get beaten and probably level half of the building in the process. This is not good.

 

“Problem?” Sanji’s voice asks softly in Zoro’s ear.

 

“If they fight, yeah. Luffy’s defending you, but I don’t think we should intervene.” Zoro replies quietly, not taking his eyes off of the pair. It’s only when Sanji appears next to Luffy that he realises that either Sanji didn’t hear the last part of what Zoro said or that he flat out ignored it.

 

“Hey Luffy, what’s going on?” Sanji asks with a smile and Zoro’s hand drifts down to his sword.

 

“I was just telling Garp not to call you weak.” Luffy growls, still glaring at the man.

 

“Yeah.” Ace agrees with an angry nod.

 

“Luffy, Ace, it doesn’t matter.” Sanji tells him and that makes Luffy stare.

 

“Look, he doesn’t know me and people are going to underestimate me. I know how strong I am and so do you two. Though why anyone would call you two liars is beyond me.” he says easily and Zoro’s fingers find Wado.

 

“So Baratians really don’t have any pride.” Garp says with a grin and Zoro can see that he’s pushing Sanji, trying to see how he ticks. Zoro sees the back of Sanji’s legs tense through the blue silk of his clothing for a second and then relax.

 

“We have plenty, it’s just not so easily damaged.” Sanji smiles and Zoro is reminded of Sanji talking to his cousins, of their way of attacking each other with their words alone and doing it with a polite smile. Garp isn’t a stupid man but he’s used to settling his differences in a starkly different way.

 

“I’m sure you’re perfectly nice, kid. My grandson at least usually picks good people to be with, though he has made a few bad judgement calls. But I was against this treaty with your country in the first place, Shimotsuki has no reason to tie itself to a country that has been repeatedly invaded and has barely any military. Baratie is weak.” Garp states matter of factly.

 

“Hey, that’s not-” Zoro starts angrily but Sanji holds his hand up, halting Zoro.

 

“What is your name?” Sanji questions Garp quietly.

 

“Monkey D. Garp.” the old man responds.

 

“Listen up then cause I don’t like repeating myself. You can talk shit about me all you like because I don’t care about impressing you, either your opinion on me will change over time or you’re an idiot, either way I don’t fucking care. But no one talks like that about my country.” Sanji says tersely and Garp’s eyes narrow.

 

“I stand by what I said.” Garp asserts. At least half of their side of the room is staring and listening intently to this exchange.

 

“Baratie has indeed been invaded three times in the last three hundred years. But last I checked I’m still the prince and my family has been royalty for longer than that, no one has really done it. Everyone who tried has died nasty, bloody, deaths. People don’t try it twice. Meanwhile you’re so busy trying to attack other people that your own people starve, something that doesn’t happen in Baratie. Taking care of our own people is more important than making other people think we’re great, that’s our pride.” Sanji hisses at him.

 

“You need our brains to help you survive, to fix your problems and we need you to help us keep up with the rest of the world in war so that we can protect our people. We need each other. But if you’re the kind of guy whose pride is more important than the people he’s supposed to protect then I don’t really care about your opinions on me or my country.” Sanji states and stares at Garp, his gaze unwavering and unblinking.

 

“You’ve got balls kid, I’ll give you that.” Garp says with a snort.

 

Sanji looks to Zoro quickly and mouths ‘what?’ and he realises that Garp’s meaning has gone over Sanji’s head. They really DO need to have that private vocabulary lesson.

 

“He means that you’re brave or… _or you’ve got guts._ ” Zoro fills in an alternative in Tsukian and a translation to something similar in Baratian.

 

"Well thank you I guess." Sanji says uncertainly. Garp's expression isn't entirely positive and it's giving Zoro that same spine tingling feeling that he gets from being around Luffy sometimes right before Luffy decides that enough is enough.

 

"You're not very smart though. Starting an argument with me, do you know how strong I am?" Garp asks and it doesn't sound like a boast. Zoro really hopes that Sanji notices that.

 

Sanji looks at him for a moment, looks up Garp's bare arms that are almost entirely filled in with ink. He has an incredibly high total, far more than Zoro himself.

 

"Pretty strong I guess, if the marks are any clue. Plus the look that Ace and Luffy keep giving me suggests that fighting you would be a dumb decision." Sanji answers calmly.

 

"But you think some things are worth fighting for, even if you lose." Garp states.

 

"Absolutely!" Sanji agrees insistently, his hands clenching with enthusiasm.

 

"Luffy, I shouldn't be surprised that you're picking nakama like this. Just be careful. If you two had stayed with me-" Garp sighs and is cut off.

 

"We don't want to!" Luffy and Ace shout as one.

 

"Stupid kids." Garp sighs and walks off.

 

"Don't worry about him, he's just a grumpy old man." Ace says firmly, looking at Sanji and then Zoro.

 

"Yeah, he's mean but... he's okay really. If he didn't like you then you'd really know about it!" Luffy laughs loudly.

 

"Well, he seemed to have a point. He doesn't think you need Baratie, it's a perfectly valid opinion to have. Completely WRONG but, you know, everyone can believe what they like." Sanji says with a snort.

 

"You're a shit diplomat, have some more wine." Zoro says, taking some off of another passing tray and handing it to Sanji.

 

"I wasn't trying to be diplomatic." Sanji pouts.

 

"It shows, idiot. You're going to run out of people who'll take you mouthing off at them with a laugh or a shrug, soon you're gonna open your mouth and someone will demand you settle your words with a duel." Zoro points out.

 

"I was wondering if Garp was gonna swing for you. I guess being a foreign prince bought you some more time with it." Luffy says thoughtfully.

 

"Luffy, your nakama have food." Ace says quickly, slapping Luffy in the side of the arm where his downward facing zig-zag marks start.

 

"Yes!" Luffy hisses and the group of them make their way over to their nakama, with Ace in tow of course.

 

"I told you, hold out food and they will come." Nami smirks at them, the tray balanced on her hand.

 

"There's a fair few other people that you could have baited over with that though." Robin adds and her eyes flick to a few people across the room, notably Shanks. Zoro credits Mihawk's finer manners for his default state not being eating like a starving animal. Speaking of which, Luffy and Ace have cleaned the platter that Nami had been holding.

 

"We have more, help yourselves. NOT YOU!" Nami loudly adds that last bit to Luffy and Ace.

 

"So you're starting fights with old guys now then?" Franky asks, elbowing Sanji.

 

"Oh, you saw that?" Sanji mumbles in slight embarrassment.

 

"Gotta keep an eye on you in case you needed backup." Franky says and Sanji makes some noise in his throat which probably was meant to be an expression of gratitude.

 

Their little group settles down around a table, laughing and talking as they eat. Franky is practicing his Tsukian and getting translations from Usopp and Sanji as he needs them, his skills are coming along amazingly well. Drinks are poured and drunk and when the food is gone Ace meanders off elsewhere to his own nakama and to more food. Occasionally people come by and introduce themselves to Sanji, with Robin and Nami afterwards supplying commentary on who that person was and any other inside information that Robin has got her hands on. Sanji manages to not get into an argument with any more powerful people.

 

It's a fun night and Zoro feels more relaxed than he has in a long time. His parents are both together, albeit currently talking to different people, his husband is here, his nakama are here and a good deal of his friends are too. There's good food, good drink and a good atmosphere.

 

"Hey Zoro," Sanji says thoughtfully as he sips at his drink.

 

"I thought that you'd said I was the palest person with the blondest hair that you knew." He says curiously.

 

Zoro mentally flicks through his memory of other blond people that he knows or anyone else whose skin is naturally pale like Sanji's. Boa Marigold might count in terms of paleness or Perona, but both of them wear makeup for that and neither of them are blond.

 

The only other relatively pale blond that Zoro knows is... Kaku. And his skin and hair are both shades darker than Sanjis.

 

"You are." Zoro confirms.

 

"Then who's that?" Sanji asks and points over to where Mihawk is sitting. No blonds there. Just Zoro's father and his assistant.

 

"You know when you say blond you mean your hair colour, right?" Zoro asks, checking that this isn't a linguistic problem they're running into here.

 

"Yeah. I mean her, the woman with your father. Who is she?" Sanji asks again and Zoro looks.

 

"That's Kalifa, she's my father's assistant. She takes notes, keeps records, that sort of thing. And most importantly she's not blond. Her hair is black and her skin is dark, she looks more like Robin than you." Zoro answers him.

 

Sanji is squinting at him dubiously, as if he's gone mad or is jerking Sanji around for no reason.

 

"The woman, the one who has her hand on your father's shoulder. The one in the black dress with the collar that goes like this, she's blonde." Sanji asserts and gestures for the square standing up collar that Kalifa is wearing.

 

"No, she's not." Zoro argues back.

 

"Nami, my sweet, tell Zoro his dumb ass is wrong. Tell me about the woman up there by Mihawk." Sanji asks with a simpering smile that makes Zoro want to kick him in the knee. Nami looks and then looks back to Sanji.

 

"That's Kalifa, she's Mihawk's assistant. She takes notes, keeps records, that sort of thing." Nami says and Sanji looks thrown for a second.

 

“What colour is her hair?” Sanji questions her and Nami looks at Kalifa and back to Sanji.

 

“Black.” Nami tells him.

 

“See?” Zoro smirks and drinks a little more of his drink.

 

Sanji isn’t smiling, he’s looking from Nami to Zoro and back again with concern on his face.

 

“Robin, Usopp, Luffy. Can you do something for me? I’m going to count to three and when I’m done can you all tell me who that woman is who’s standing by Mihawk?” Sanji says in a quiet voice.

 

“Why all together?” Luffy asks in confusion.

 

“Humour me. Okay? One, two, three.” Sanji counts.

 

"That's Kalifa, she's Mihawk's assistant. She takes notes, keeps records, that sort of thing." All three of them say at once, at the same speed and intonation. Zoro’s eyes widen in alarm.

 

“That was creepy.” he says warily and Robin is looking at Luffy with confusion and worry on her face. It’s not even the same way that Luffy would have said that, it’s like he was reading off of a script.

 

“Don’t look at her. I’m guessing that you all think that she has black hair.” Sanji asks and all of them nod.

 

Sanji stares at the table for a moment before raising his hands slowly to the back of his neck. He unclasps his necklace and holds it in his hand.

 

“You think…” Nami whispers and looks at the blue glimmering stone in Sanji’s hand.

 

“Let’s find out. Zoro, can you put this on for me?” Sanji asks and holds out his hand with the necklace in it.

 

Sanji wants him to wear it because it’s supposed to repel some kinds of magic and he’s suspicious of… of…

 

Sanji’s necklace is in his hand. Why isn’t Sanji wearing it?

 

“What were we talking about? Why’re you giving me that?” Zoro asks, though his mind feels unsettled. He feels like he’s walked into a room and forgotten what he went in there for, the unsettling feeling of nothing where there should be something.

 

Sanji smiles gently, placatingly and Zoro feels worse.

 

“I want to see what you look like wearing it.” Sanji tells him smoothly and offers it again.

 

Oh. Well, why not? He takes the necklace from Sanji’s hand and slides it on. It takes him a few moments to do the clasp but he manages it without having to get Sanji or anyone else to help him.

 

The necklace is still warm from Sanji’s body heat, even the blue stone pressed against his skin is. The idea pops back into his mind at once.

 

“Kalifa!” He gasps. They had been talking about Kalifa and how everyone gave the same explanation for her about who she was and Sanji was talking about how she looked. Zoro warily looks up and sees that the woman standing talking to Zoro’s father is not like Robin at all. Her hair is long, straight and most important of all it’s as blonde as Sanji’s is and her skin is just as pale.

 

“She looks completely different.” Zoro breathes in awe.

 

“How is that possible?” Luffy frowns and Usopp softly translates for Franky.

 

“Magic, illusion magic. I don’t know an awful lot about it but it must be powerful stuff, we didn’t realise what was wrong without Sanji pointing it out. She’s put us all under the illusion that she’s someone else and she’s been doing a job that allows her close to the King. It must be a pretty powerful spell because it’s giving me a headache to keep thinking about it.” Nami explains.

 

“You have a headache? How come?” Luffy asks innocently.

 

“And it seems like it’s got something built in to make you forget it when you start questioning it. This is a nasty spell.” Nami says through gritted teeth.

 

“If you have a headache we could get Chopper. He didn’t want to be here tonight, said there were too many people and he had work to do but we could go get him.” Usopp offers. Zoro’s blood runs cold, they’re all being manipulated.

 

“Can anyone tell me when Kalifa started working here?” Nami asks, pinching the bridge of her nose. The hair on Zoro’s arms stands on end and the air feels a little static. It’s Nami’s magic for sure but Zoro isn’t sure if she’s flexing it to drown out Kalifa’s or if it’s a pain reflex for her when it’s caused by magic.

 

“I don’t… not actually always but it feels like it, I don’t remember when she started.” Robin answers with a frown.

 

“I can’t place the date but it’s a decent amount of time.” Zoro agrees.

 

Sanji drums his fingers on the table. The sound of his short clean nails rapping out a pattern as he thinks.

 

“So longer than six months, she was here before you left to meet me?” Sanji asks slowly.

 

The idea settles unpleasantly on the surface of Zoro’s mind and then sinks in, making his skin crawl as it does. Kalifa was at the castle when all of their marriage negotiations happened. She had access to Zoro’s knights, specifically Kaku and worse still…

 

“She’s been there every time my father interviewed Kaku and he was behaving so strangely, like he was trying to convince someone that he wouldn’t go back on his word and he’d still try to kill you. So he could still get me. But it made no sense for him to say that to my father and I… I couldn’t work it out. I couldn’t see it, goddamnit!” Zoro snarls quietly, trying not to attract Kalifa’s attention.

 

“You were probably stopped from seeing it, we don’t know exactly how this magic works after all. We need to arrest her but we’ll have no chance if she can just put people under spells like that.” Sanji says thoughtfully.

 

“Who’s putting who under a spell? I’m not, you know my magic doesn’t work like that.” Nami says with a frown and pours some more wine. She’s forgotten again and she had been the last one holding out, the rest of their table has gone back to normal.

 

“We need more people who can see her.” Zoro says quietly to Sanji. But how? He can’t just pass this necklace around, can he? It wears off.

 

“Nami, my sweet, remember that huge rock of blue stone I gave you? The one that repels magic, the same thing my crown and necklace is made of? Where did you leave it?” Sanji asks in his most sugary voice, he even bats his eyelashes at her. Idiot.

 

“Oh, it’s in my bedroom on the windowsill. I’m still deciding what to do with it but it does look beautiful with the afternoon sunlight going through it.” Nami smiles.

 

“I’ll get you a new one. I’ll be right back Zoro. Keep an eye on everyone, alright?” Sanji murmurs and gets up from the table, slipping past everyone and out of the room.

 

Zoro’s heart is hammering in his chest. The traitor has got to be Kalifa, or more likely she’s a spy. She looks Baratian though, certainly not Tsukian. But did she arrive before Zeff did? He hadn’t been there for the initial negotiations, the understanding had been that he would meet Zeff and Sanji on the day of the wedding. But had she been around before then or did she arrive with them? Is this Baratian treason or something else?

 

He scowls as he thinks, he doesn’t think that she arrived around the time of Zeff’s proposal, it was before then. But that doesn’t rule out treachery in Zeff’s court, after all the King consulted with the nobles in his country before making the offer to Mihawk and Sanji had said that many of them were against it.

 

So she got to Kaku but the question remains, did she convince him or has he been under some spell this whole time? Has Zoro’s friend been trapped inside the bewitched logic of some spell all along? If he wasn’t in control then he’s innocent and that thought stings him with guilt as much as the thought that Kaku’s a traitor stings him with betrayal. Either way he’s failed his friend, by not noticing that something was terribly wrong in one capacity or another. Is Kalifa’s magic that powerful though?

 

It’s powerful enough to have made two of the smartest people that Zoro knows forget all about what’s happening, Nami and Robin are laughing and drinking with each other like nothing is amiss. Forgetting is one thing though, manipulating someone into believing that killing someone is the only way to get someone else to love you, that’s a far more complex idea.

 

Could she really do that?

 

Zoro looks up and freezes when he sees that Kalifa is staring straight back at him. He swallows thickly but he can’t break eye contact with her, he’s pinned to the spot. Kalifa’s eyes widen in alarm and then flick to the necklace hanging at his chest, he tries to cover it but he’s too late. She leans in towards Mihawk and says something, then turns to walk out of the room. A strange expression flickers across Mihawk’s face when Zoro leaps to his feet.

 

“Guards! Stop her!” Zoro shouts but the two guards at the door just blink stupidly as Kalifa passes them by. Zoro starts to run, he can catch her he-

 

He lands in a painful heap on the stone flooring in the middle of the room, his ears still ringing from the impact of his head with the floor. His sword is vibrating in his hand and with an upsetting noise it cracks and then splits in two. Zoro has no time to mourn though. A flash of steel makes him roll out of the way and a sword as tall as he is sticks out of the stone where his head just was.

 

Zoro crouches and stares up at his father in terror. He’s never seen Mihawk look at him like this, or like anyone like that. That is malice and hate in his eyes pure and simple. His mouth twists in a snarl and he yanks the sword from the stone floor.

 

“Father! Listen to me! It’s me, Zoro! I don’t want to fight you. I-” Zoro pleads but Mihawk isn’t listening, perhaps can’t listen.

 

Mihawk moves to strike and Zoro just manages to get Wado out in time, dropping his broken blade to brace Wado with both hands.

 

The strike is deflected and Mihawk stumbles back. Only, it’s not Zoro who did it.

 

“He said he didn’t want to fight you! Are you trying to kill him?!” Shanks shouts, standing between Zoro and Mihawk with his sword drawn.

 

“YES!” Mihawk bellows and Zoro’s heart stops. Mihawk means it, his father means to kill him. He’s not strong enough to beat him in a fight yet and especially not when his father means to kill him and Zoro just wants to survive.

 

“I won’t let you! Mihawk! Come to your senses, he’s our son!” Zoro’s dad shouts, moving as Mihawk circles so that he can shield him with his body.

 

“Step aside Shanks, you’ll see.” Mihawk orders but Zoro’s dad stands his ground. The whole room is staring, not knowing whether to interfere or not.

 

Zoro grabs Sanji’s necklace and pulls it off, holding it tight in his right hand. He looks around the edge of Shank’s cloak at Mihawk who looks furious and deadly, when their eyes lock Zoro’s blood freezes. How many people have had this as their last sight before?

 

“He’s under a spell, his assistant did it. This should snap him out of it.” Zoro says urgently and holds up his hand.

 

“Together then.” Shanks says quietly.

 

“Hey! O-over here!” Usopp’s voice calls out and though Zoro looks to see his nakama, neither of Zoro’s parents do. A blue hunk of rock flies at Mihawk from a different direction and he effortlessly deflects it with his large blade. Zoro looks to see Sanji standing on a table, a heavily weighted pillowcase in one hand and a look of impending doom on his face. From his pose Zoro can tell that he was the one who threw the rock at Mihawk’s head.

 

“Well that didn’t… work like I hoped.” Sanji says unsteadily.

 

“After I’ve finished with this _liar_ I’ll deal with you.” Mihawk hisses at Sanji who goes paler than Zoro was even aware people could go without having lost half of their blood.

 

“Oh fuck.” Sanji says in Baratian and jams a hand back into the pillowcase to pull out another blue stone. Sanji must have smashed the large blue gem that he had given Nami in order to make enough for everyone.

 

While Mihawk is threatening Sanji Shanks lunges for his other half and slams their blades together to shove Mihawk’s sword aside. Zoro darts under Shanks’ cloak, necklace clutched in hand and reaches for the bare strip of skin on Mihaw’s chest as his shirt is not fully done up.

 

Mihawk goes to slap Zoro away with one hand but Shanks kicks it back just as Zoro is able to press the blue stone to Mihawk’s skin.

 

All of the fight goes out of Mihawk in an instant and he just looks down at Zoro, his gold eyes wide with horror. His hand comes up to Zoro’s face and touches the side of it, his thumb running under Zoro’s eye and along the bone there.

 

“Zoro… my son…” He says in a strangled tone and then clutches him close in a way that he hasn’t done since Zoro was much smaller.

 

“I- I thought someone had killed you and was wearing your skin I… _how_ did I think that?” Mihawk demands.

 

“A witch, your assistant is a witch. She’s been messing with everyone’s minds but my necklace, this stone, it breaks it somehow. Sorry about… ah… throwing one of them at your head. I didn’t have a better plan.” Sanji says, rushing close to them and holding up a blue stone.

 

“Zoro are you okay?” Sanji asks worriedly and Zoro nods as much as he can with Mihawk’s hands still holding his face close.

 

“Kalifa did this?” Mihawk says warily, letting Zoro go and taking the stone from Sanji’s hand. Only when he’s done so does Zoro take the necklace back and put it on himself.

 

“Yeah, she caught me looking at her after Sanji left to get more of those stones and must have figured it out. We need to get those stones to everyone and hunt her down and catch her.” Zoro insists.

 

“Divide them up. Guards, come here!” Mihawk barks out the orders and the guards around the room rush over, though most had already come close when Mihawk attacked Zoro.

 

Sanji spills out the pillowcase onto a nearby wooden table. The giant chunk of blue rock is shattered into hundreds of odd sized pieces, they’re not pretty or sensibly shaped but it’ll do. Sanji must have shoved the rock inside the pillowcase and shattered it with a kick.

 

Mihawk starts quickly explaining everything to the guards, his high ranking military leaders and the rest of their guests. Sanji pulls Zoro close, he sees Sanji look him up and down, trying to judge if he’s injured or not. Remarkably he’s physically fine, not something most people could say after the same kind of encounter. His sword though… he picks the shattered blade up off of the ground with a heavy heart. He’s had this sword for years and now it’s just dead. Shit, this isn’t the time for this kind of melancholy.

 

“The stones?” Zoro asks and sets the broken blade on a table with care.

 

“Our nakama all have one for themselves and spares for other people, but we have a bigger problem. Remember how I said that Kaku was bait for whomever he was working with?” Sanji says and lets that last sentence hang there.

 

“Kalifa’s gone to make sure Kaku can’t talk, and she was there every time my father interviewed her. We need to go!” Zoro says urgently and grabs Sanji’s hand, pulling him along.

 

“Zoro! Where are you going?” Shanks shouts after him.

 

“To the dungeon, she might be going after Kaku!” Zoro yells back and their nakama all rush along with them as they leave the room. Zoro can just hear the sounds of Mihawk demanding that the guards secure the building.

 

“Where’s Chopper?” Zoro asks Sanji as they run.

 

“I gave him a bunch of stones and sent him around the other side of the castle to give them to guards and staff. If he runs into trouble he can either go small and hide or get big and fight. He’ll be fine, I trust him.” Sanji assures him. Zoro isn’t so sure, Chopper’s not familiar with the castle and he’s still pretty young. That said he’s a brilliant doctor and clearly very mentally mature, plus he’s a reindeer so who knows how they age. Besides if someone had told Zoro that he was too young to do something like that when he was Chopper’s age he’d have tried to stab the idiot that said it.

 

“So if she’s going to rescue Kaku she’ll have to find a way to get him out of the castle, where would be the best way out?” Franky asks, his voice serious.

 

“I don’t know. There’s so many exits!” Zoro answers frustratedly.

 

“The staff exit will be really busy with deliveries and kitchen staff if it’s anything like Baratie. Somewhere quieter probably.” Usopp suggests. Robin quickly translates for the rest of the group and Zoro really needs to get everyone to be able to speak both languages because they don’t have time for all of this translation.

 

“The east wing exit has the least contact with the public, if she’s trying to smuggle Kaku out he’s not going to be very agile. That’d be the best route.” Nami says once Robin has relayed the conversation.

 

“Robin, go to the east wing exit with Franky.” Luffy orders and Robin nods, pulling Franky in the right direction to take what Zoro presumes is a short cut there. That’s not the route that he would take but now isn’t the time to be picky with other people not having a good sense of direction.

 

They rush to the dungeon and unnervingly the guards that are supposed to be posted on the outside aren’t there. They rush in and down the stairs together so when Zoro skids to a halt several people run into his back.

 

“Oh… fuck.” Sanji grimaces as he takes in the room.

 

The door to Kaku’s cell is open and the guards aren’t outside like they should be, they’re inside the cell. Only it seems like Kalifa wasn’t trying to rescue Kaku so much as she was trying to ensure that he didn’t tell anyone anything. She’s certainly accomplished that goal.

 

Kaku is in… bits. Blood has seeped through the hay on the ground and is now in the edges of each stone slab on the floor. The four guards standing over him all seem to be in a trance of some kind because they’re mechanically continuing to stab Kaku.

 

“It’s… Kalifa. Illusion magic is hard to understand but sometimes it’s changing what you see but also what you think, it’s all in your head. Making us all think she belonged was a very powerful but subtle spell, this is… powerful but not subtle. It’s like they’re in a loop.” Nami explains, one hand over her mouth and nose in a futile attempt to blot out the smell of blood.

 

“This’ll work to break them out of it though still, right?” Sanji asks, holding his hand up with a spare rock. Nami nods.

 

“Give it to me.” Zoro says and takes the stone from Sanji. He walks up to the nearest guard with no reaction from her and then touches her shoulder.

 

“Stab.” She mutters absently. He pulls her back and takes her sword from her hand, she continues trying to stab Kaku with nothing. Nami’s right, this isn’t a carefully put together spell, this is the magical equivalent of a sucker punch. He forces the rock into the guard’s hand and closes it around it.

 

He makes her look at him and for a moment or two she looks lost.

 

“Prince… Zoro?” She asks in a small voice. She turns her head to look towards Kaku and the other guards but Zoro catches her face in his hand.

 

“You don’t want to see that. I need you to go to the great hall, find my father and tell him what’s happened.” Zoro says slowly for her.

 

“What… what has happened? I was guarding the prisoner and then… I…” She trails off and tries to turn her head again.

 

“Tell the king that Kaku is dead and Kalifa isn’t here, we’re going to look for her. Repeat that for me.” He orders, keeping it as simple as he can.

 

“Kaku is dead, Kalifa isn’t here, you’re going to look for her. I don’t understand though, why am I covered in blood? I don’t feel hurt.” She says, her voice going unsteady.

 

“You’re not hurt. Just go do what I told you. Go. And don’t let go of that stone!” Zoro orders her and pushes her towards the stairs.

 

Zoro looks to see Nami and Usopp and Luffy doing the same to the remaining guards but Sanji is standing at the cell bars looking in at what remains of Kaku with a horrified look on his face.

 

“If she could do that to them… make guards loyal to you go against their orders and kill a prisoner. Then could she have…” Sanji trails off and presses his hand to the scar on his neck.

 

Zoro knows what Sanji means and that’s the million beli question, isn’t it? Did she make Kaku obsessed with killing Sanji and puppet his every action? Or was that all Kaku? Or was it a mix of both? Did Kalifa just screw with Kaku’s perception of reality when it came to Zoro and make him trust different people when he normally wouldn’t? Kaku had always been ruthless and unflinching but he had been kind and rational too. Zoro supposes that she would only have had to fuck with his personality a bit to make him into a monster, she could do the same to him or to Sanji. If someone removed Sanji’s mercy, his empathy then he could be impossibly cruel with his intelligence and dangerous with his short temper. Was it possible to alter the core of someone’s personality like that?

 

Zoro doesn’t know if he’s standing in the blood of a traitor or a victim.

 

There’s one way to find out though.

 

“We need to catch Kalifa, come on.” Zoro insists and leads the way back up out of the dungeon.

 

The hallway outside the dungeon is straight, running along the edge of the castle with few forks off to the side. It’s meant to be hard to hide around here in case anyone ever did escape, not that anyone ever has as far as Zoro can remember. Nearby is a staircase that just goes up to the next floor. If Zoro was trying to escape he would consider going up there on the basis that people wouldn’t be so likely to search upper floors of the castle as they lack obvious exits. It’s easy enough to land safely on the ground below from one floor up.

 

“Luffy, Usopp, search upstairs. Luffy I don’t care how much damage you have to inflict to catch her if you find her as long as you don’t kill innocent people in the crossfire. Other than that, I don’t care what you have to do to get her.” Zoro orders and Luffy grins widely.

 

Zoro, Nami and Sanji begin to run down their path in the hopes of catching up to Kalifa. She had to avoid people and the three of them don’t, they can only hope that it gives them an advantage in chasing her.

 

“You should put that necklace inside your armor Zoro, skin contact is better.” Nami says through harsh breaths as they run. Zoro doesn’t know where Nami is keeping her stone but he suspects that it’s been shoved in her bra, he only hopes that the stone she has isn’t too pointy.

 

“Maybe if you had a crown like mine…” Sanji says teasingly but Zoro can hear it’s more forced than anything, they’re still leaving bloodied footprints as they run after all. Still Sanji could use the distraction and Zoro could too.

 

“Not getting one like yours, I don’t care what you think.” Zoro says back and Sanji starts to say something but then skids to a halt as they finally turn a corner.

 

“I guess we’re going the right way.” Sanji says worriedly.

 

Down the hallway are three guards, trying to feel their way along the wall with wide open eyes. The floor is littered with half burning torches that have been lit and then dropped. Zoro is thankful it’s bare flagstone here and not carpet or else they’d have a fire on their hands.

 

“Who’s there?!” One demands, waving a sword in their general direction.

 

“The two Princes and Nami, Royal Knight. Let me guess, you can’t see anything.” Nami says walking up to one and pushing his sword away. She puts a spare rock into his hand and he blinks a few times.

 

“I can see!” He gasps excitedly.

 

“Here, I’ve got another. Come on, open your hand, there you go. Can you see now?” Sanji asks, having moved onto the second guard.

 

“I- yes. Wait. P-prince Sanji… you… you speak… Tsukian?” The guard trails off, his eyes going impossibly wide. The first guard looks equally horrified and the one that Zoro is now handing a stone to is going pale in alarm.

 

“Oh, yes. Look, it doesn’t matter we just need to know-” Sanji starts but then all three guards throw themselves at the ground at Sanji’s feet.

 

“WE’RE SO SORRY! PLEASE FORGIVE US YOUR HIGHNESS!” They wail together in an overlapping mesh of apologies.

 

“Forgive you for what?” Zoro asks, but no one listens to him.

 

“I don’t care about that right now! Did you hear which way she went?” Sanji demands but the guards are still wailing. Sanji had been so amused about whatever they were saying that they didn’t think he could understand but from their reaction it doesn’t sound like it was good things at all.

 

“We can do this later! No one cares about you all talking about how fuckable you think I am because you thought I couldn’t understand you! I want to know if you heard which way she escaped to, you are wasting my time!” Sanji shouts angrily and the guards all wince.

 

They were talking about _what?_

 

“Actually, I think I care about that.” Zoro cuts in, looking at the three men. To speak of a prince that way and so obviously is so far beyond acceptable behaviour that Zoro can scarcely believe it.

 

“Not right now you don’t! Tell me the way!” Sanji snaps at him and then back to the guards.

 

“Up… up the stairs. I heard her heels. I’m s-so sorry Prince Sanji I-” one guard pleads. A guard who’s face Zoro memorises as Sanji pulls him in that direction.

 

As they start up running again Zoro opens his mouth to either ask for some goddamn information about what exactly the guards have been saying or else tell him that they _will_ be talking about that later when Sanji comes to an abrupt halt again. Kalifa is halfway down the staircase and staring at them with an alarmed expression on her face.

 

She lifts her hands up and waves them through the air in a complex pattern. Zoro feels the air get oily with the feel of magic and he touches his chest where the necklace is pressed to his skin under his armor.

 

“You are frozen!” She shouts and her voice seems to echo as she speaks, a reverberation in her tone that is in no way natural.

 

Sanji and Nami glance at each other for a moment and then back to Kalifa who seems to have realised that her spell hasn’t stuck. Nami draws her staff and Zoro’s heart stops for a moment. Nami is a weather witch, her powers aren’t suited for the indoors. Either they don’t work because the space is too small or they rapidly change the indoors to being the outdoors by helpfully removing the walls and roof. They’re on the ground floor of the castle and Zoro is pretty sure that the nearby walls are vital for keeping the parts of the castle that are above them in place.

 

“My turn!” Nami snarls and Kalifa turns and runs. Zoro and Sanji give chase. As they round the corner of the staircase a bolt of lightning surges across the space between himself and Sanji and Kalifa. It comes close enough to her to throw her forward as the impact of the lightning with the wall blows a hole in it, showering all of them with rubble.

 

“NAMI!” Zoro shouts at her.

 

Sanji leaps forward and grabs Kalifa by the leg as she scrambles to her feet but his hand slides right off of her in a burst of white froth. Kalifa slips away and rushes off, Zoro chases after her but Sanji doesn’t follow.

 

“Sanji, your hand!” Nami gasps and Zoro abruptly stops. Sanji’s hands are his most precious thing of all, if Kalifa hurt them somehow then Zoro doesn’t know what he’ll do. He turns to see Sanji standing on the staircase holding one hand up before his face. His skin looks weirdly shiny, almost like his healing burn. His fingers are oddly rounded and look like they don’t have any joints in, he’s like a bad drawing.

 

“You’re seeing this too?” Sanji asks, turning his hand this way and that.

 

“Yeah, oh, it’s so slippery! Does it hurt?” Nami questions and her fingers slide right off of Sanji’s hand when she tries to touch him.

 

“No, I can still move it and feel. It’s got to be a devil’s fruit power if it’s not magic, right? So it should… wear off or we can make her undo it. We just need to catch her. Come on, let’s go!” Sanji insists but he sounds unsteady and rattled.

 

Zoro can’t think about Sanji’s hand right now, if he says it’s fine then he has to hold onto that for now. He can’t think about the sword that’s shattered now because of Kalifa making Zoro’s own father try to kill him. He can’t think about the question mark over Kaku’s guilt. If he thinks about those things he’ll lose focus and he needs to catch her and make her pay for all of those things.

 

“We’re on the first floor now, the others are up here somewhere, we could corner her!” Nami says as she runs side by side to Zoro.

 

Kalifa glances back at them and then drops to her knees and slides along the floor in a trail of foam, her long boots not even making the slightest scraping noise as she does so. She slides to the end of the hallway and then leaps to her feet and sprints around the corner. As soon as they reach the part of the hall where Kalifa dropped to her knees Zoro realises why she made no sound. She used whatever devil’s fruit power it is that she possesses and turned the floor as slippery and strange as Sanji’s hand. The three of them all lose their footing but their momentum carries them all forward but with their footing lost they all fall and slide. They all skid along the absurdly slippery floor and then hit the wall at the far end with a painful crash.

 

Zoro puts his hand on the floor to try to push himself up, he can already see Kalifa fleeing away down the corridor. When he tries to push himself up with his hand though it just slides from under him and lands him on the floor again with a thud.

 

“Sorry.” Sanji apologises quickly and Zoro is just about to ask what Sanji is apologising for when Sanji jams his boot into Zoro’s armor on the back and hauls himself on top of Zoro’s chest so that he’s crouched on Zoro’s back. He leaps forward off of Zoro and onto the floor ahead that isn’t slippery. The action however slides Zoro back against the other wall so that he’s in the corner.

 

“Don’t step on me, you curly browed ass!” He shouts after Sanji but his husband is in hot pursuit once more and too far away for Zoro to yell at him properly.

 

He looks to Nami who is closer to the edge of the frictionless floor than he is but not within reach of the edge. Zoro touches the wall with one hand, aims and then pushes off, colliding with Nami and causing them to both roll back onto the normal floor.

 

“Come on, I’m not happy with Sanji being alone with someone involved in a previous attempt on his life.” Nami says and Zoro couldn’t agree more.

 

They rush to where Sanji is to find that he’s managed to corner her into an alcove. Zoro draws his swords, his hand grasping for a moment where one of his swords should be and is now not before he remembers he now just has two.

 

“You can’t run, the castle guards are are looking for you. The rest of the knights are looking for you and so is the King.” Sanji says in a calm and even voice. It takes Zoro a moment to connect the even tone that Sanji is speaking in with the language, he’s speaking Baratian not Tsukian.

 

She replies back in Baratian but her accent and tone are so weird that he can’t work out what she said at all. Either it’s a Baratian accent he’s not heard before or she’s not a native speaker. Is Sanji testing her? Damn, Zoro wouldn’t have thought to do that.

 

She kicks out at Sanji and he blocks with a kick of his own but it strangely lacks force. Zoro can’t see a way to get in the middle of the fight without risking Kalifa’s escape or her using Sanji against him so for now it’s a one on one fight between her and Sanji. Zoro frowns as the fight goes on, Sanji isn’t putting anything into it, he could have destroyed her twenty times already but he keeps trying to talk her into a surrender. It’s not like Kalifa is weak, she’s skilled and dangerous but she’s clearly more accustomed to relying on her magic and her devil’s fruit powers rather than strict combat.

 

“Stop holding back!” Nami shouts and jabs her staff at Kalifa. Or at least, where Kalifa was. She moved at the last moment and now Sanji has to twist awkwardly to avoid getting a rib shattered by Nami’s attack. Kalifa takes the advantage and uses Sanji’s moment of being off balance to swing a kick at his face and to Zoro’s horror it connects. Zoro feels a snap of magic as Kalifa waves her hands and hisses a word that Zoro doesn’t recognise.

 

Sanji hits the floor with his hand at his forehead but he starts getting up right away. Kalifa starts to escape again and Zoro and Nami begin to chase her, she’s running out of castle to go through and most of the guards should be immune to her magic now so they can-

 

Sanji screams and Zoro screeches to a halt. There’s a thin trickle of blood running down Sanji’s face from the middle of his forehead, right where his crown was. The stone is shattered on the floor along with the twisted metal that had held it together in its delicate design. Instead Sanji stands in the middle of the hall on unsteady feet with a look of utter terror on his face. His breathing is speeding up and Zoro recognises that level of fear, Kalifa did something to him to make him feel like his nightmares do. Sanji is looking around wildly at nothing and muttering fearful things under his breath. Kalifa fucked with his mind just like she did to Mihawk and the guards. When he gets his hands on her he’ll kill her for this.

 

“Chase her!” He orders Nami and then turns back to Sanji. He can’t leave someone as powerful as Sanji in the castle with his mind fucked up, he could kill people without even meaning to.

 

“Sanji, can you hear me? It’s Zoro.” He says in calm Baratian, coming close to him.

 

Sanji’s head whips in Zoro’s direction and he yelps and leaps back in alarm. Sanji’s eyes are alarmingly wide but he’s not quite making eye contact with Zoro, he’s looking in Zoro’s direction and seeing but not really seeing him.

 

“Sanji, it’s me.” He says calmly. It might not be any use, reasoning with Zoro’s father didn’t work even when Shanks tried it. He had to try though.

 

He comes closer and evidently it becomes too close as Sanji lashes out with a kick that Zoro only just blocks with a half drawn blade. He smacks into the opposite wall and feels the stone crumble around him. Sanji meant that kick, it was panicked and uncoordinated but he still meant it. As soon as Sanji settles into this fight he’ll start to shove his fear aside and he’ll aim to maim or kill whatever or whoever it is he thinks that he’s fighting instead of Zoro. If he has to he’ll fight Sanji and knock him out but that’s not going to be easy and if he commits to fighting too soon he loses all hope of being able to get a peaceful solution to this but if he leaves it too late he might lose the fight altogether.

 

“Get AWAY from me you MONSTER-!” Sanji screams at him though exactly what kind of monster it is that he thinks Zoro is he has no idea, he doesn’t know that word. Or if he does know it he couldn’t recognise it through Sanji’s fear.

 

Sanji is backing away from him only to look back and then jerk to a halt, wobbling as if he’d lost his balance. He looks back at Zoro who is stuck at the wall, not sure about whether to attack or stop.

 

“I can’t believe I’m BACK here! And with… no… wait.” Sanji scowls at Zoro.

 

“How… how did I get here? I… am I dreaming?” Sanji murmurs to himself, pacing back and forth and clearly unnerved. His hands are clutched at his middle and his eyes keep flicking warily to Zoro.

 

“Yes! You’re dreaming or… close enough.” He shouts at Sanji who skitters back away from him. So Sanji can hear him then, he just doesn’t understand what he’s saying. He can also obviously see where he is even if he can’t tell it’s him, so maybe…

 

Zoro shoves his hand in his pocket, hoping dearly that this plan will work. He pulls out his last spare blue rock and holds it in his hand. He holds his hand up and then jerks it to the right and then up, down and to the left. Sanji’s confused and frightened gaze follows his hand. Zoro throws the rock in a gentle overhand arc so that it’d hit Sanji right in the chest. It doesn’t get a chance though as Sanji catches it in his good hand before it hits him and his expression is puzzled for a good few moments.

 

“What the fuck?” Sanji finally says and looks around him in bafflement.

 

“I’m… here? And you’re you and- oh shit Kalifa! She must have-” Sanji exclaims but Zoro cuts him off.

 

“Broke your crown, smashed the rock. We’ll deal with it later, you’ve got a new one so _move it_ curly!” Zoro shouts and takes off running.

 

“How much more of this damn castle can she run through?” Sanji demands as he runs behind Zoro.

 

Before Zoro can reply a huge bang rushes down the hallway in a ripple of displaced air that makes Zoro’s ears pop and the floor beneath his feet shudder. He and Sanji look at each other and run a little faster. Zoro really _really_ hopes that wasn’t the start of one of Whitebeard’s earthquakes.

 

As they run along they pass guards who are dazed, staring at rocks in their hands and trying to get their minds back together. A door to the left is open and rubble and smoke are still coming out in a thin haze. Zoro comes inside to see a strange figure standing in a gaping hole in the wall. The body is weirdly proportioned and oddly smooth edged, lightning flashes outside and the burst of light illuminates the figure. Orange hair, green dress and slightly glowing purple eyes. Her whole body looks as odd as Sanji’s affected hand does, that’s Kalifa’s work alright.

 

“Nami?” Zoro asks in disbelief and rushes to the hole in the wall. This close to Nami actively casting magic makes his back teeth hurt and the air feel all wrong. He can see a figure outside fleeing but the clouds are shooting lightning after her at a rapid pace and the only thing that he can think that would be dumber to do than interrupt Nami using magic would be to leap out in her lightning storm with a long piece of metal.

 

The fleeing figure, no doubt Kalifa, runs across the castle grounds. She’s fast and though some people notice her and try to stop her they fail and their attempts at getting closer to her make it more difficult for Nami to use her magic. She disappears into the chaos of the town that edges the castle and Zoro knows in his heart that no one will find her there. There are too many people susceptible to her magic and too many places to hide and escape out of town. They won’t find her, he knows that, but they will try.

 

“You blew a hole in the side of my castle.” Zoro says after a moment.

 

“My hand slipped. It might happen again if you don’t shut up about it.” Nami says back, her eyes going back to normal. The clouds outside rumble and rain starts to fall, blowing inside the room in gusts. A splatter of it hits Nami’s arm and her weirdly smoothed skin starts to foam and turn back to normal.

 

“Oh thank goodness for that.” Nami sighs and rubs at her arm, the more water that lands on it the more it becomes normal again. Sanji rushes for the gaping hole in the wall and shoves his arm outside. The hand that Kalifa had used her powers on bubbles and then returns to normal, though Sanji stands there checking it for a few long minutes just to be sure.

 

“We need to go tell Mihawk that we lost her, he needs to know where to look.” Zoro says quietly and he’s not looking forward to that. He takes one last look out into the dark rainy evening and punches the wall in frustration. Now what are they supposed to do?

 

 

 


	28. Chapter 28

Sanji massages the middle of his forehead, he can still feel where Kalifa kicked him and nearly drove his crown through his skull. They had gone back to pick it up afterwards and what remains of his crown is now safe inside his pocket. The stone that was there was smashed to little more than dust and shards that Sanji keeps having to pick out of his clothes. Sanji is pretty sure that the crown can be repaired, aside from the stone the damage is minor and any jeweler in Baratie would trip over themselves in glee to be the one to repair it. So Sanji knows that it’s not gone and knows well enough that plenty of family heirlooms have been damaged, broken, repaired and replaced over the centuries. He just feels raw about it because it’s his crown, he’s had it for most of his life and before him it was Zeff’s and before him it was his grandfather’s. It was special and now it’s broken.

 

“Chopper, I’m fine.” Sanji assures their little doctor who is still examining Sanji’s eyes and his head, looking for any signs of a concussion. Sanji would be more annoyed at the fuzzy guy if he didn’t know full well that he would try to just walk off a concussion until it dropped him face down on the floor.

 

“I actually agree with you for a change, you seem fine. If you have any dizziness or disorientation or if your vision goes strange then please come back to me.” Chopper tells him firmly.

 

“What about a headache?” Sanji asks and Chopper frowns.

 

“For the most part I’m not sure you can avoid a headache, you did get hit in the head after all. If it gets really painful come see me.” Chopper says and Sanji nods.

 

“I guess that thick skull of yours came in handy then.” Usopp teases and Zoro laughs.

 

“Oh ha, ha.” Sanji mutters bitterly and stands up from where he was crouched.

 

“Oh, hold up. She finally arrives!” Zoro shouts that last part down the stone hallway to Perona who has just flown in through one of the outer castle walls and down the corridor to where her sleeping physical body is resting. She pokes her tongue out at him and settles into her body, opening her long lashed eyes with a flutter.

 

“Shall we go in? They’re waiting for us.” Zoro asks.

 

What Zoro is referring to is a meeting of Mihawk’s highest generals and their most trusted advisors as well as people who had contact with Kalifa. The last people that they’re waiting for is Zoro, Sanji, their respective knights, Chopper and Perona. Several of their knights are already in there, it’s just the five of them left. Sanji figures at first that Zoro is reminding Perona of their lateness in a backhanded sort of way but the expression on his face doesn’t seem to match that. No, he’s asking if there’s anything she wants to tell him but not tell everyone else.

 

“Let’s go then.” Perona says instead, either ignoring Zoro’s subtext or denying the offer.

 

Sanji shakes his head and rubs what he’s pretty damn sure is going to be a nasty bruise and follows Zoro into the nearby room full of people who are tense, angry and armed to the teeth.

 

Sanji hasn’t been in this room before but it’s large, the walls are dark and lined with maps and weapons. There is a map of the whole continent pinned to the table and there are people sat down on chairs that look like they have been hastily brought out from somewhere else in the castle. Some people like the huge man Whitebeard have foregone sitting on small chairs and simply stand imposingly. Perona sits down on Mihawk’s other side and Zoro sits on his side which is closest to the door and Sanji next to him. Usopp and Chopper join their knights behind them and the room quiets from talk and into silence and everyone looks at the King.

 

“We shall begin at the basics and move out from there, considering that everyone may not be aware of the same things I think that this is best.” Mihawk states and pours wine for himself, others in the room are already drinking. Shanks moves from his spot by the wall to take the bottle of wine from the table and drinks straight from it without a glass or any intention of sharing. He leans back against the wall and scowls at the room. Mihawk gives him a look that Sanji is sure has appeared on his own face at Zoro’s lack of table manners and for a moment he very strongly empathises with the King.

 

“To begin, an illusion witch named Kalifa infiltrated the castle and used her magic to convince everyone that she was my assistant. We are not entirely certain as to why. Our best records from the library and day to day affairs seem to suggest that she came here around a year ago, she was not here at Shanks’ previous visit. Sanji, Zoro and their knights managed to realise what she was but she was able to exploit her magical powers and escape, killing the prisoner Kaku in the process.” Mihawk announces.

 

“How did she manage to convince you of that? Just saying ‘magic’ doesn’t tell us anything.” a man with weird hair who looks like he’s with Whitebeard speaks up.

 

“Nami, I realise weather magic is a different kind but if you could provide us with your explanation we would be grateful.” Mihawk says smoothly in the tone of a man used to not having his requests denied or questioned.

 

“Of course.” Nami says quickly and stands, bows and then faces the room.

 

“Illusion magic is pretty secretive by nature, witches who can do it don’t like to say too much about how they do it. But to put it simply, they can’t make you do something that you would never to do. What she does is tell your mind a lie that it has no choice but to believe, either as a thought or by seeing or hearing something.” Nami explains.

 

“So she made you think that Zoro was someone else?” Garp asks, looking at Mihawk.

 

“I… I believed completely that someone had murdered Zoro and was wearing his skin. It doesn’t make sense now but I was completely convinced that it was true.” Mihawk answers and Shanks drinks from his bottle of wine and scowls.

 

“You’d never try to kill Zoro, the only way that might happen is a duel. So in order to get you to attack him she had to change your perception.” Nami elaborates.

 

“But the guards in Kaku’s cell didn’t seem to be thinking anything.” Zoro points out.

 

“Well, it looks like she’s able to just… brute force it sometimes. The difference between opening a door or kicking it down I guess. I’ve never heard of any witch with that kind of magic being that powerful, but I suppose that we wouldn’t.” Nami says reasonably.

 

Sanji squeezes his eyes shut, his head is ringing so hard it feels like Carne just whacked him around the head with a baking tray.

 

“Indeed. Though we all reacted as best as we could and the quick distribution of these blue stones allowed us to see her and stop her creating further havoc. However her escape out of the castle made pursuing her impossible as she had started turning citizens against us and we were running out of means to break the spell. Putting up wanted posters for her would be an exercise in futility as she can presumably look like anyone.” Mihawk continues.

 

“There will be be limits to how much she can change her appearance and for how long as well as how many people she can affect at once.” Nami adds and Mihawk nods, taking the information in.

 

“You can still do a lot with a regular disguise and we don’t know what those limits are.” Robin points out.

 

“Well, I was protected from her magic and I searched as wide an area as I could by air, there was no sign of her. Either she’s hiding or long gone.” Perona sighs. That’s what she had been doing right before they came in the room.

 

“Why kill Kaku though? I get that he might have told us information about her but if she can hide herself so well then why would it matter? It’s not as if Kaku’s words could have had much credibility and we would have executed him anyway.” Garp points out.

 

“Maybe she wasn’t alone.” Luffy suggests, leaning back in his chair with a thoughtful expression on his face.

 

“You think other people in the castle might have been helping her? Do you have a reason to suspect anyone in particular?” Mihawk asks, looking at Luffy.

 

“Kaku.” Luffy answers simply.

 

“Kaku did tell us repeatedly that ‘they’ would reward him for assassinating Sanji. I think it’s more plausible to assume that they were working together rather than there being two simultaneous plots from different people.” Robin adds in confirmation.

 

“So here’s an unpleasant thought that I’ve not been able to drop since we found out about Kalifa. If she could make Mihawk attack Zoro and try to kill him, was Kaku working with her or was he just another victim?” Ace says and Sanji’s stomach sinks. The idea had occurred briefly when they saw Kaku’s mangled body but the following chase had driven it from his mind.

 

“I don’t know which idea I hate more.” Zoro responds unhappily and Sanji’s heart aches from his husband. That’s guilt that he is hearing right now from Zoro. He’s feeling like there’s a strong possibility that his friend was hurt and needed him and Zoro hadn’t noticed, that there’s a possibility that Kaku might have been aware at some level as to what was going on but instead of helping him Zoro had hated him. But like Zoro said, which option is worse? Either his friend of many years betrayed him in a deeply personal way that Zoro cannot forgive, or he was a victim and Zoro didn’t realise and didn’t help and now he’s dead.

 

“Kaku knew more than he was telling us, whether he was tricked into working with Kalifa or not doesn’t matter right now. She killed him for what he knew so we need to find a way to chase the people she was working with. If we can’t catch her because of her magic we find the people that we can catch.” Luffy asserts.

 

“Do we have _any_ information that suggests beyond a doubt that she wasn’t working alone? Because so far I’ve heard nothing that says that, you could be chasing ghosts when we’re looking for one lone witch.” Garp asks Mihawk and Luffy mutters something under his breath at being challenged like that.

 

“Not as far as I’m aware, just theories. We don’t even have any information about her nationality at all.” Mihawk sighs.

 

Zoro says nothing, Sanji doesn’t know if he recognised Kalifa’s Baratian or not but he’s not so stupid to have failed to notice that Sanji himself was speaking his native tongue to her. And yet now he stays silent, leaving it so it’s Sanji’s choice whether or not to say and Sanji can see why. In front of this audience of heavily harmed men all angry at the attempted murder of their prince by their at the time bewitched King to claim that the woman spoke his language may be making his own noose.

 

He still has to say something though.

 

“Your Majesty- ah… Mihawk. May I speak and have your word that I won’t be interrupted until I have finished? It’s important but complicated and I want to be clear.” Sanji asks, looking at the King who narrows his eyes as if trying to see through Sanji himself.

 

“You have my word and unless there are objections, the word of everyone else in here. Anyone?” Mihawk asks, looking around the room, people shrug or shake their heads.

 

“Very well, speak.” Mihawk tells him, and the eyes of the whole room are on him. Oh boy.

 

Sanji gets his feet and feels very, very, surrounded. He really hopes that he doesn’t get a sword to the throat, he hates the scar he’s already got enough. A warm hand touches the back of his knee and though Zoro looks to everyone else like nothing is different Sanji can feel that Zoro is on his side no matter what.

 

“We were chasing Kalifa, Zoro, Nami and I.” Sanji begins, as everyone watches him.

 

“We had chased her up the stairs and we got separated for a moment, I ran ahead and Zoro helped Nami to her feet. I managed to corner Kalifa but I didn’t want to kill her, I wanted to capture her, to find out who she really was, everything that happened with Kaku, who she was working with.” he explains. If he’s entirely honest he also isn’t sure that he could bring himself to kill a cornered woman when there was any possibility of not doing so.

 

“I tried to talk her down, to convince her to surrender. There were so many of us in the castle and more and more of us protected against her magic. But she was so pale and her hair was blonde and her eyes were blue and I spoke to her in Baratian instead of Tsukian. She just looked like someone from back home that I didn’t think about it, I didn’t realise I had done it.” Sanji says and people in the room are starting to change their expressions. Either they are assuming that he fucked up his negotiation by doing in a language she didn’t speak or they’re suspecting what Sanji is about to say next.

 

“I didn’t realise until she replied, in Baratian.” Sanji says and despite Mihawk’s words the room breaks out into noise of talking and shouting.

 

“You all agreed to silence!” Mihawk barks out and the room suddenly is void of noise, so much so that when Sanji swallows nervously he can hear the sound of it. His head throbs and Sanji seriously feels like he needs to sleep off this headache, it is so bad that it’s starting to screw with the edges of his vision.

 

“Her Baratian was wrong though, it was like it wasn’t her first language. But I’ve never heard that accent before. I don’t think she actually was Baratian.” Sanji says emphatically.

 

“Can you reproduce it? Say what she said how she said it.” Shanks says, speaking up when he really shouldn’t be. Sanji nods unsteadily.

 

_“This isn’ oh-ver you won’ stoph this. I’ll nev-er surrender!”_ Sanji says, struggling to mangle his own language like that. Sanji can see the look of befuddlement on Zoro’s face, apparently the accent puts the Baratian out of his range of understanding.

 

“Shanks, does it sound familiar to you, or anyone?” Mihawk asks, looking around the room.

 

“I need my map. The map I gave you, where is it?” Shanks asks, pushing away from the wall.

 

“I’ll get it you won’t be able to.” Mihawk says, getting from his chair and walking to the shelves on the far wall.

 

“I can.” Sanji can hear Shanks grumble.

 

“You need to press these two far away buttons at the same time.” Mihawk explains.

 

“I could-” Shanks starts but Mihawk cuts him off.

 

“If you put your feet or your mouth on this box I will _remove_ them.” Mihawk threatens under his breath and Shanks laughs loudly.

 

When the pair return, unknowing or uncaring that Sanji at least could hear them, Shanks has a map in hand. He flicks it open across the table, unrolling it and letting it settle down on the table. Everyone leans in as much as there is space.

 

“OH! You have detail about the land across our sea! All we have is the coastline and a few miles in.” Sanji exclaims in surprise, gesturing to the land on the other side of the ocean that borders Baratie.

 

“I’ve never seen this before.” One man says in displeasure and several others echo the sentiment.

 

“That’s because it’s not yours, or Mihawk’s. This is my map and it’s only here so that he can see where I will be, not for war.” Shanks says pointedly.

 

“So why are you showing it now then, red-hair?” Garp challenges and his expression is anything but friendly. Sanji slowly realises that he isn’t the only foreigner in this room but Shanks is the only one who has likely been withholding information for years.

 

“That woman tried to kill my son, she tried to get the man I _know_ to kill him and if she was involved in Kaku’s failed assassination attempt then she put both of their lives at risk twice. This is _personal_.” Shanks says and his tone is not angry, but it freezes the air and Sanji is so very glad that it’s not directed at him.  

 

“Sanji, what do you know about this place?” Shanks asks, gesturing to the other continent.

 

“Well, there are different countries over there but I don’t know much of their political system at all. Most of the information we had was gathered when my father was my age, so I only know what I’ve been told. Some trade goes in and out of our ports but it’s no regular arrangement and most of it is pirates to be honest.” Sanji explains and Shanks nods.

 

“That accent you heard was a very good impression of someone from Mariejois speaking the pirate Baratian that I do.” Shanks says flatly.

 

“With all due respect,” Garp says, his tone indicating that the amount of respect there is in fact quite small, “why would some foreign pirates be interested in coming all of this way to try to kill two princes?”

 

Sanji pulls the map closer and stares down at the water between the two lands, his finger finds the spot in the sea where that spire of rock was, where his hell was. His eyes scan the water, the map is very well made, it looks Baratian style with the detail in water depths and currents but there’s information on here that Baratian maps don’t have. Alarmingly the opposing land mass doesn’t appear to have other countries on it like Sanji thought. It looks as if it’s all the same place, simply divided up into provinces.

 

“What’s changed? What did our alliance threaten?” Robin asks, looking at the map.

 

“The water. If someone was to invade any country on this continent by water we would know about it. Baratie’s range and Alabaster’s combined covers the whole eastern shore, though in the last seventy years or so the amount that we will fight for is less. We don’t have the military force to patrol it, we don’t have the kind of war infrastructure to support that.” Sanji says with a frown.

 

“You do now though. And we now have access to the sea, if either of us declared war on someone we could build thousands of ships filled with soldiers.” Zoro says slowly.

 

“Something that would threaten any leader, but no one else has resorted to assassination like a coward.” Whitebeard remarks disdainfully.

 

“Nothing is verified yet, all we have is a motive and an accent but we need to look into this. Everyone, I need you to do what you can to confirm this. If this theory is correct and Mariejois was behind this then this means war. Does anyone else have any other information or advice?” Mihawk asks, looking around the room. No one speaks or offers any further words.

 

“Then everyone is dismissed.” Mihawk says with finality and the room empties, no one seemingly willing to argue or risk staying. Even Shanks strides out of the room without a backwards look.

 

Out of habit Sanji heads for their rooms with his head throbbing.

 

“You said the right thing.” Zoro states suddenly and Sanji has to stop to look at him.

 

“You weren’t going to say anything about it were you? About her speaking Baratian.” Sanji asks curiously. Zoro doesn’t meet his eyes and instead looks at a spot several inches to the left of Sanji’s ear.

 

“I figured it was Baratian if she understood you and you understood her. But I didn’t need to tell a room of jumpy and armed men that. I wasn’t going to say, no.” Zoro confirms and Sanji smiles slyly.

 

“Isn’t that lying by omission? I thought your people hated that.” he challenges.

 

“I would have told my father later. I value honesty but I value you not being murdered more and you’re able to make people want to try enough on your own, I don’t want to help there.” Zoro says grouchily and Sanji laughs.

 

“You have a gift for saying the sweetest things in the least sweet ways.” he laughs and keeps walking.

 

“You have a gift for being grateful in the least grateful sounding ways.” Zoro snaps back and Sanji just laughs harder.

 

“Oh, shut up. You’re making my head hurt worse.” he says, smacking Zoro in the arm.

 

“Is it really that bad?” Zoro asks, his brow pinching in worry.

 

“Yeah, it feels like the worst hangover I’ve ever had. My eyes even hurt.” Sanji answers and shoves the door to their room but it doesn’t open and he has to fiddle with the handle for a few embarrassing seconds before he can make the door work.

 

“A what?” Zoro says with a frown and follows him in the room.

 

Water splashes underneath Sanji’s feet and he looks down, expecting to see a leak or a spill on the floor but sees nothing and then when he wiggles his toes again his feet feel dry. What was that about?

 

“Sanji?” Zoro prompts and Sanji looks up at him, feeling lost.

 

“Huh?” Sanji says intelligently and Zoro sighs.

 

“I didn’t understand the word you said, what it feels like.” Zoro repeats.

 

“Oh. Oh… a hangover. It’s what you get if you drink way too much the night before.” Sanji explains and glances at the dry floor again. Weird.

 

“Oh, I don’t get those.” Zoro says lightly.

 

“Oh, well, go fuck yourself then.” Sanji mutters back and walks into their bedroom. He just wants to sleep this off. Chopper said that it wasn’t a concussion so he’s okay to sleep.

 

“Are you going to sleep?” Zoro asks him as he pulls his boots off and starts on his waistcoat.

 

“Obviously.” he retorts, his hands fumbling clumsily with the buttons and his vision going weirdly dark around the edges.

 

“Sit down, dumbass. I’ll help.” Zoro insists and gently but firmly pushes Sanji back on the bed. Sanji goes with it and lets himself fall back, though his head aches with the movement.

 

“Hey, wait a second. Frown again, just like you did then.” Zoro commands him and Sanji is too tired to resist or ask why so he just does.

 

“Chopper missed a bit, you’ve still got a bit of that rock in your skin.” Zoro sighs and moves away. Sanji touches his forehead, it’s more of a bruise than a cut but the metal of his crown did get him a little and he’s got a few shallow wounds.

 

Zoro returns with a pair of tweezers that Sanji is surprised he owns, though it’s probably more for first aid than it is any kind of grooming.

 

“Stay still.” Zoro tells him and catches his chin in his hand. Sanji shuts his eyes and feels Zoro pinch his skin just a little and then feels an unpleasant little pulling sensation. He already feels nauseous, he doesn’t want to think about something gross like this on top of that.

 

“Got it, just a little shard.” Zoro says and Sanji opens his eyes to see a little slice of blue in Zoro’s… in…

 

“Sanji?” Zoro’s voice calls but he sounds a thousand miles away.

 

He feels like he’s falling but he can’t see what from or to. There’s a sound that might be his name or it might be thunder… some kind of… growl.

  
  


Sanji’s skin is wet and when he sits up his hair sticks to his face. He rubs his face in his hands, smearing water on himself in the process. That actually makes him feel a little better and when Sanji opens his eyes he sees that he’s sitting in a shallow stream, his clothes are thin and white and clinging to his skin where he’s wet. He gets to his feet and looks upstream and down.

 

One way leads uphill, towards a great mountain and the other way looks like it leads down to the sea. On either side of the stream are trees, a thin layer that rapidly seems to grow thicker. He’s not sure what way he should be going but he doesn’t know what’s in those woods and it’s safer just to stay where he is in the water.

 

Thinking of it, he’s not sure where he is. Moreover he’s not sure how he got here or when.

 

Sanji closes his eyes and tries to remember what he was doing before he woke up, who he was with, what day it is. Nothing comes to him. He opens his eyes and stares at his hands, checking every detail, scars that he knows he has. A fingerprint warps as he looks too hard at it and recalls that it loops the other way.

 

“I’m dreaming. This isn’t real.” He states aloud.

 

The trees seem to ripple slightly and Sanji glares suspiciously at them. This is a dream, but it seems benign. At the very least it’s not a nightmare yet, he’s not _there_.

 

Sanji pinches himself in the side but stays dreaming.

 

“I’m going to wake up now.” He asserts to the stream and woodland in general.

 

He stays dreaming.

 

Sanji tries to ignore the press of claustrophobia, if he can’t wake up he could be stuck here for what might feel like an eternity and because his mind hates him he’ll end up on the rock again at that rate. No, no, no he doesn’t want to go there! He can’t deal with that again!

 

Something hits Sanji’s ankle and in his pent up state he leaps a foot in the air in alarm. He lands unsteadily on the dirt on the edge of the stream and then sees what hit him. It’s a broken sword being carried gently down the stream, catching on rocks as it goes. Another bit passes him and Sanji feels an inexplicable swell of sadness at seeing it.

 

Curiosity bites at his mind and he walks alongside the stream, following it down until he finds a bend in the stream where the sword fragments wash up and stay. They’re not the only ones there, there are wooden swords that look almost like a child’s toys and smaller blades along with several full size ones. Sanji fishes the two new pieces fully out of the water and holds them up together. The two bits fit perfectly and when he sees the blade assembled his mind lands on Zoro. Isn’t this his sword?

 

He doesn’t know where he is and he doesn’t feel like he can just carry it around until he finds Zoro again and-

 

“No, wait, I’m dreaming.” Sanji says aloud, having forgotten. He’s just dreaming of one of Zoro’s swords, it’s not real. It doesn’t matter.

 

He wants to just drop the weapon and leave but although he knows it’s not real it feels wrong to treat something of Zoro’s with disrespect. Zoro values his swords as much as Sanji values his hands and it’d be wrong to mistreat even the idea of them.

 

A little awkwardly Sanji kneels down and digs a little hole in the ground and buries both parts of the blade, putting a rock on top as if it were a grave. He reaches into the water and lets the pure water fill his palm and then drips it onto his makeshift grave. Sanji tries to push all thoughts of silliness at the action from his mind and be serious, this is important.

 

When he’s done Sanji washes his hands clean of the dirt and stands up. No matter how much he focuses on waking up he can’t seem to, so it appears as if he’s stuck here until he wakes. Zeff taught him how to recognise dreams when he was young in an effort to control his nightmares about the rock, it wasn’t too effective but he can usually tell if he’s dreaming and wake himself up if it’s any dream but that. Sometimes he can even alter dreams, change the place or the story but if he can’t even wake from this one he doubts that he can do any of that.

 

Sanji is out of his stream and now that he’s up close to this forest it doesn’t seem too foreboding, it looked more unsettling from afar. The trees are tall but not any species that Sanji recognises, the leaves are small and numerous in shapes that look a little like stars. It must be autumn because all of the leaves are gold or red and the floor is littered with a soft carpet of golden leaves over mossy green ground. The colour combination seems pleasing to Sanji’s eye and sets him at ease. Through the filter of the leaves the dappled golden light of a sunset patterns the floor and beams of it hang in the air, catching motes of dust or pollen as they float. It reminds Sanji of golden honey being drizzled and he finds himself walking into the treeline before he can even truly think to do so.

 

It’s strange, Sanji likes nature plenty and he’s been in forests and woods before but they’ve never really been his thing. If anyone offered him the choice between going to the sea or going to a forest he knows that he’d never choose the forest. All the same though he feels at peace and curiously alive here. The place is quiet but comforting and though Sanji walks with no purpose or destination in mind he doesn’t feel like he’s just killing time.

 

He steps over a small rocky ridge and comes down the slope, only to lose his footing when the rock that he had stepped on somehow shatters under his foot and sends him tumbling. Sanji catches himself without braining himself on a rock or twisting his ankle. When he turns around to look at the rock though he sees that it wasn’t a rock at all. Round topped and white he had assumed it to be an innocent stepping stone but from here he can see what remains of it, an empty eye socket and the grinning teeth of a white skull that now has a hole from Sanji’s heel in it.

 

“Holy shit.” Sanji mutters and backs up, his bare foot standing on and snapping something that he knows is not a fallen branch before he looks down. True enough it’s another bone and there are more littered here and there. He turns on the spot and tries to count the bodies, there are several but they look old. Whatever killed these people is unlikely to still be lurking around. All the same the forest feels different here, dangerous and foreboding. He has the same feeling stealing over him now that he had when he was a child and sneaking into rooms in the castle that he was not allowed into. No one is supposed to be here, and yet here he is.

 

Sanji shakes himself, he won’t be told where he can’t go especially not by some trees and old bones. There’s no danger here, he’s fine. He folds his arms and looks challengingly at the skeleton as if to dare it to contradict him. It doesn’t of course, but strangely the marks on the bones aren’t like anything Sanji has seen before. Sets of parallel lines scored into the bones, almost like…

 

A low, deep bass growl comes from behind him.

 

Like claws. Almost like claws.

 

Sanji turns very slowly, not wanting to make any sudden movements at all. Atop the rocky ridge that Sanji and climbed down is a large creature that is staring down at him. It resembles the small cats that live on farms and docks to hunt mice as much as he could say that a dogfish resembles a great white shark. Same basic shape and animal type but _vastly_ different in practice. This cat’s body length alone is Sanji’s height without even accounting for its massive tail which is half as long again. Its body is a vibrant orange for the most part and is covered in sharp black stripes.

 

“Ah… good kitty…” Sanji says backing up slowly. The big cat climbs down from the ledge, his large paw landing on the skull for a moment before shattering it underfoot with no effort at all. It gets onto the forest floor where Sanji is and Sanji watches its claws flex and Sanji knows that they can sink into his flesh like a hot knife through butter.

 

If he runs the cat will chase him and Sanji doesn’t know this forest and the cat clearly does. He could fight it and he might win but the aura that this thing is giving off is menacing and suggests that it is not to be underestimated. He’s not usually afraid of animals, though he has a healthy respect for them and the harm that they can do. Something tells him though that this is no ordinary animal, he feels as if he would have better odds fighting that dragon with no backup than he would this thing. Sure he might win, _maybe._ But even if he did it would not be an easy or clean victory. So he can’t fight it, can’t run, so he must stand his ground.

 

Sanji squares his shoulders and steadies his footing, keeping it strong but defensive. He stares the beast down, locking onto its deep golden eyes.

 

“You don’t scare me.” He says firmly.

 

The cat snarls and roars at him and Sanji can see every sharp white tooth in its snarling mouth. This thing could kill him, it’s clearly killed other people. Sanji stays put and stares at its golden eyes that seem so… familiar. He looks at the dark stripes on its face and its body, they don’t wrap the whole way around any part of it and that too itches with a familiarity that confuses him. He’s never seen a cat like this before, so how can it be familiar?

 

“I’m not going to hurt you.” Sanji says in a calm voice and means it. As he looks over the big cat’s body he can see scars and old injuries marring the orange fur and leaving pale slashes in it where it doesn’t grow.

 

“Other people have though haven’t they? You’ve killed to defend yourself or… your family maybe?” Sanji guesses and the cat pads over to him on large soft paws, surprisingly quiet for a creature that size.

 

“I don’t think… that you’d hurt me.” Sanji says aloud and the cat blinks slowly at him.

 

Sanji keeps his eyes on the creature and carefully kneels down, folding his legs under him and allowing himself to be almost defenseless but also not a threat to the animal. It comes closer to him, still looking aggressive and dangerous. Its body language dominates the space and Sanji thinks that even if it was smaller it still would, in fact it almost-

 

He looks into the cats gold eyes and it finally clicks.

 

“Zoro?” He asks and the animal comes close to his face, opens its deadly mouth and Sanji has a horrible moment of dread. He’s going to get his head bitten off, his throat ripped out he’s- being licked. A huge, wet and somehow rough tongue is slathered over the scar on his neck.

 

“Eugh!” Sanji grimaces and pushes the cat back. He moves back willingly as Sanji pushes his hand into warm chest fur and sits back on his haunches. Sanji looks at the cat’s face and yes, those are Zoro’s same golden eyes albeit in a more feline shape. The stupid creature has left the tip of his tongue out of his mouth but it sitting there perfectly happily and Sanji wonders for a moment how he ever was intimidated.

 

“You are Zoro aren’t you? It’s stupid dream logic but you’re Zoro.” Sanji says and touches the tip of the forgotten tongue, prompting the big cat to lick his own nose and then shut his mouth properly.

 

“I painted these stripes on you, that must be why.” he thinks aloud and runs his hand over the Zoro-cat’s large orange head and behind rounded ears. He digs his fingers into the deep and soft fur and scratches, getting a deep purr in response.

 

“Yeah, you’re just like Zoro. Scary looking, beautiful in a weird kind of way, dangerous too but you’d rather have a nap than hurt someone.” Sanji beams and keeps stroking him. Zoro falls on his side and Sanji gets the chance to rub his white stomach for a little while before he suddenly decides that he’s had enough and stalks off to look intimidating on top of some other rocks.

 

Sanji watches him and then looks at his hands once more, checking the small details of his body over to remind himself that he is dreaming. If he can’t wake up and he can’t change things and he’s dealing with a dream representation of Zoro then it’s probably supposed to be some meaningful dream, some message that a deep part of his mind is trying to give him. If he works it out then maybe he can wake up.

 

“So… you’re Zoro. Scary to other people but not to me, some big predator but not a ruthless killer. That seems to make sense, but that’s nothing new. I don’t know what the swords were about, your past maybe? Growing up? Oh, but people who are good at this dream analysis thing always say that swords are about sex.” Sanji says and the big cat makes a displeased snuffling snort.

 

“Yeah, I think that’s bullshit too.” Sanji agrees and gets up.

 

“So what’s the message here then huh?” He asks and the Zoro-cat blinks slowly at him and then starts licking his paws.

 

“Real helpful, thanks.” he grumbles and turns his back on him. He looks up at the mountain, is he supposed to climb it? It looks steep but passable, not unlike the mountain that he climbed with the dragon atop it.

 

“There’d better be something worth getting to at the top of that thing because it’s going to take forever to get up there.” he says and starts walking towards the large and imposing mountain.

 

He begins to climb and thinks as he does so, repeatedly having to remind himself that he’s dreaming. A mountain could be a problem maybe or perhaps a journey. He can certainly think of plenty of those in his life right now, but it’s not especially illuminating to him like this. With surprising grace the huge cat leaps up to the rocky outcrop at the base of the mountain that Sanji had reached.

 

“Oh? Are you coming with me?” Sanji asks and in answer the cat keeps walking at Sanji’s side. Occasionally he will branch off to investigate something or to leap up to a rock that is better in his estimation somehow but he always ends up back at Sanji’s side.

 

Frustratingly it feels like it’s been forever and yet the top of the mountain appears to not be getting any closer at all. When he turns around and looks behind him he can see that he’s climbed a decent height already and made a lot of progress. How that can be possible and yet be no closer to the end he doesn’t know.

 

Sanji sits down with a sigh and looks across the island. He can see all the trees with their gold leaves and here and there where there are clearings he can see the green ground below. The place is undeniably beautiful and the sunset that doesn’t seem to end just adds to it.

 

“Green and gold huh? It’s like this whole island is yours.” Sanji muses as he looks out at it. The large cat slinks over and sits down next to him.

 

“Well, it doesn’t look like I’m getting to the top of this mountain or waking up any time soon. So… I hope you don’t mind me sticking around here with you.” Sanji says quietly. The Zoro cat bumps his head into Sanji’s and rubs his thick fur on him in what Sanji can only assume is affection.

 

Sanji scratches his fingers into the cat’s orange fur and looks out on the island with a strange kind of contentment. He didn’t choose to dream about this place or to be here but even so the place is perfect in its own way and if he had known that before then he probably would have chosen to come here. As the large feline next to him purrs Sanji is reminded that he’s not alone any more either and that’s pretty great too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm really glad that I finally got to write this. Also I'm so happy to show you all awesome art by Mimu who is working on several other projects with me (notably One Plus One which you totally should read because I love it and it's filled with art), she really wanted to a do a mirror to her last piece and there was no way that I could say no!


	29. Chapter 29

Zoro breathes in deeply and sleepily, running his tongue around his sleep dry mouth before yawning. He rolls onto his side and reaches his arm out to find nothing. Irritably Zoro opens his eyes to see that his alone in bed. His brain wakes up, and fast too. 

 

Sanji, Kalifa, Kaku. 

 

Sanji is often not there when Zoro awakes, choosing to bother their nakama or at least the other early risers of them. Normally he’ll get in on his sunrise workout in the courtyard. This is no normal day though, this is the day after a second attack on them, a second time someone’s tried to kill members of Zoro’s family and he’s not okay with not knowing where Sanji is. 

 

Zoro’s hand flies to the necklace at his chest, he’s still wearing it so Kalifa can’t be fucking with his brain. But Sanji… Sanji was unprotected. He could be anywhere and doing anything whether he’s aware of it or not he-

 

Zoro pauses. He was halfway through climbing over Sanji’s side of the bed when his hand hit something strange and crinkling. He takes his hand back and looks. It’s paper, probably from one of Sanji’s journals but there’s no writing on it but instead there’s a drawing. It’s a sketchy little drawing but judging from the long nose and the stupid haircut the two figures at the start are meant to be Franky and Usopp, there’s an arrow pointing to them and then a little picture of Sanji himself. 

 

So Sanji is unlikely to be mind controlled, just leaving weird notes. 

 

“We really need to learn to write.” He grumbles and climbs out of bed, still looking at the odd note. Franky and Usopp… get Sanji? He wonders if this is a grammar issue. Franky and Usopp are first so they’d be first in a sentence but it’s not like the arrow is pointing from them to Sanji indicating that they’re going to where he is. Even in Baratian the grammar isn’t backwards. Franky and Usopp are getting Sanji to come to them? But why? Why would they come here to get Sanji and then leave again? They’re definitely not in the next room, Franky and Usopp aren’t the picture of quiet and stealthy. Sanji didn’t draw a place so either he didn’t know or it’s obvious. 

 

Yeah they really need to learn to write and he should just adjust his body clock and wake up with Sanji. 

 

He dresses efficiently and is gone in minutes. He feels agitated and ill at ease and after last night it’s no wonder why. Every guard he passes is wearing one of Sanji’s blue stones and all of them look grim. This building is a fortress of defence and yet Kalifa wormed her way inside and into all of their heads. If not for Sanji who knows what would have happened. He is lucky to have a husband so perceptive, even if a part of it was down to luck or the wisdom of one of Sanji’s long dead ancestors in choosing magic repelling crown jewels. This is his home, at least for half of the year and having it violated like that makes him feel ill. 

 

If he was being entirely rational right now he might also be able to pin some of the blame for his unhappiness on the death of someone who may or may not have been his friend and may or may not have been guilty of treason. But he can always think about that later or, perhaps, never. 

 

“Zoro!” Usopp’s voice jolts Zoro out of his thoughts and he has to look around to make sure that he didn’t somehow get to the knights quarters faster than he should have done. He’s not there yet though and yet Robin and Usopp are walking towards him. 

 

“Usopp, what’re you doing here?” Zoro asks, feeling a little puzzled. 

 

“He does live here, same as you Zoro.” Robin says with a chuckle. 

 

“Me and Robin were just checking the outside of the castle and talking to the builders that have been brought in to repair the wall that Nami broke. Unless of course you want a window that big?” Usopp says with a grin. 

 

“I think the repairs are probably a better idea. I was on my way to yours to try to find Sanji.” Zoro says. 

 

“You lost your husband again Zoro? Getting a little careless hmm?” Robin says teasingly with a sparkle of mischief in her eyes. 

 

“He left me a note, I think it means that he’s with Franky and Usopp. You should probably teach us to write by the way, as fun as children’s picture message games are I’d rather be able to actually communicate with that idiot on paper.” Zoro says and starts walking again, Robin and Usopp walk alongside him. 

 

“We can start on that, right Usopp?” Robin says.

 

“Sure, but… I haven’t seen Sanij this morning.” Usopp points out and worry tightens in Zoro’s gut. Did he get the message wrong or did Sanji not make it as far as the knights quarters? No, Sanji is strong, he doesn’t need babysitting every second of every day. But then… his father is strong and he got entirely overpowered by Kalifa. 

 

“Maybe I got the note wrong.” Zoro mutters, not buying his own words. Sanji’s note was strange but any other interpretation didn’t make sense. 

 

He gets to the door of the knights quarters and turns the handle. The moment the door is even slightly ajar he has the flowing water-like tones of Baratian flow over him and he relaxes. 

 

“It’s got to be Kalifa screwing with your brain Sanji! Who knows what awful things she’s put in there?” Franky argues. 

 

So much for relaxing. 

 

“It’s not her Franky, I’m sure of it. I know what having her in my head felt like. Just because I can’t explain-“ Sanji starts to argue back but Zoro has no time to listen to this. 

 

“What’s Kalifa done?” Zoro asks, pushing his way fully through the door and looking at the pair of them. 

 

“Nothing, or nothing new anyway.” Sanji says soothingly, though Zoro isn’t so soothed when he sees the bruises on Sanji’s elbows that evidently came to the surface overnight. 

 

“That is ridiculous! You’re having hallucinations about things that you couldn’t possibly know about. It’s not coming from inside your head, it’s coming from outside which means Kalifa!” Franky argues, waving his arms. 

 

“You’re hallucinating?” Robin asks in alarm, walking around to look in Sanji’s visible eye and hesitantly trying to brush the rest of Sanji’s hair out of the way so that she can compare them. Sanji ducks out of her grasp with an apologetic smile and a shake of his head.

 

“No, I’m fine Robin.” Sanji says gently. 

 

“Chopper said that you weren’t concussed.” Zoro says warily. 

 

“I’m not, and I WASN’T hallucinating Franky. It was a dream, it just freaked me out is all because I couldn’t wake up from it when I wanted to.” Sanji says with a deep sigh, looking very much like he regrets having this conversation at all. 

 

“You had a dream that you couldn’t control that wasn’t your nightmare?” Usopp asks in surprise. Zoro doesn’t quite get what they mean, how can anyone control a dream?

 

“Yes, I couldn’t wake up or change anything and I kept forgetting I was dreaming.” Sanji answers. 

 

“That sounds like a regular dream to me.” Zoro points out but Sanji shakes his head. 

 

“It wasn’t. You can’t dream about things that you don’t know of and Sanji was dreaming about a real animal that he’s never seen before. Look, we went to the library to check and found this.” Franky says and tosses a book at Zoro. The cover jacket is folded over one of the pages so it opens there. Sanji and Franky might not be able to read Tsukian but their eyes still work. It’s a children’s book, one of Zoro’s old ones actually though it probably was his father’s too as a child. It’s a story about a tiger and there’s pictures of the cat all through the book. 

 

“A tiger?” He asks in confusion. Robin comes over and leans over his shoulder to look down at the book. 

 

“I can’t help but notice a certain resemblance.” Robin says thoughtfully, running a finger over one of Zoro’s stripes. Even he had thought that they were tiger like when Sanji painted them, but it must have been coincidence if Sanji had never seen one before. 

 

“He painted me before he had this dream.” Zoro says, still looking at the picture. 

 

“So she got in his head before last night, who knows what she’s been messing around with in there. What if it’s some long term manipulation like she might have done to Kaku and she’s screwed up something in Sanji’s head and he’s going to leap off of the roof when the opportunity arises?” Franky says tensely. 

 

“By making him dream of a tiger?” a clearly unconvinced Usopp asks. 

 

“That could just be the only hint we get that she did anything.” Franky argues. 

 

“Murder, attempted assassination, treason and assault, you don’t think that making me dream of Zoro as a cat is a bit of a step down from that level of evil? I know she’s the only person who could be screwing with my head but it just doesn’t feel like her!” Sanji retorts. 

 

Wait… what? He was the tiger? Zoro’s breathing halts, it can’t be, can it? He’s got excited over Sanji’s dreams in the past for no reason, he doesn’t want to get his hopes crushed again. 

 

“I thought you said that you were dreaming of a tiger, not Zoro.” Robin asks.

 

Zoro watches Sanji open his mouth to speak but then falter, frown and sigh. 

 

“It was both. It wasn’t Zoro as a person as a- but it felt like it was him inside. I can’t explain why I knew, I just did. The whole place felt like Zoro. It was this autumn forest and-” Sanji starts explaining and Robin and Usopp’s faces shift to identical pictures of ‘ah-hah!’ as they realise just what it sounds like Sanji is saying. 

 

“Franky we should go! It’s ah… it doesn’t sound like Kalifa to me.” Usopp says suddenly and darts forward, grabbing Franky by the arm and trying to pull him out of the door that they came in through. 

 

“Whoa, hey now, how do you know that?” Franky protests but Robin comes forward and takes hold of his other arm. 

 

“There’s a few things I should explain to you.” She says softly and leads him out. 

 

The door closes and Zoro and Sanji are alone in the partitioned room containing Usopp and Franky’s sleeping areas. The next joint room off of that is Robin and Nami’s, then Johnny and Yosaku and so on in a square around their common area. Sanji looks from the door to Zoro and squints suspiciously at him as if he organised that departure somehow. 

 

“What was that about?” Sanji asks, folding his arms and scrutinising Zoro. 

 

“I’ll tell you afterwards. Tell me about your dream from the beginning, in detail.” Zoro says, pulling Sanji over to Franky’s bed and sitting down. Sanji just stands there with Zoro holding his wrist and trying to pull him to sit but Sanji clearly isn’t budging. 

 

“What?” Zoro asks. 

 

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? What’s the sudden fascination with my dreams, huh? Why did they suddenly need to run off? What am I missing here?” Sanji demands, pulling his wrist back and then folding his arms petulantly. 

 

“It’s… culture stuff. Just tell me about your dream and if I’m right then I’ll explain afterwards.” Zoro offers but Sanji shakes his head. 

 

“No, you’ll tell me now.” Sanji insists and his visible blue eye narrows. 

 

“I…” Zoro hesitates. If he tells Sanji then he opens himself up to all of the possibilities about Sanji convincing himself that he knows Zoro when he doesn’t. 

 

“You’re hiding things from me.” Sanji states and takes a half step back, but it may as well have been across the other side of the country for all the distance it feels like there is between them now. 

 

“Don’t do that. I’m not lying to you, I just don’t know the best way to tell you something and if I tell you it could screw things up, make you think something that might not be true. I don’t want to lie to you and I don’t want you to lie to me.” Zoro explains unhappily. Sanji’s face is the picture of offense, so clearly he said the wrong thing again.

 

“I wouldn’t lie to you! I also wouldn’t keep shit from you like you’re doing to me!” He snaps angrily and Zoro winces. 

 

“It’s a culture thing, okay?! It’s hard to explain and-” Zoro shuts his mouth halfway through that sentence because there’s no way that he can end it which won’t further inflame Sanji’s temper. 

 

“Your culture should be my culture, so how can I understand if it’s not explained to me?” The other man asks challengingly. 

 

“Can you just tell me about your dream, please?” Zoro asks softly and Sanji squints at him. 

 

Sanji sets his hands on his hips and looks at Zoro, studying him carefully. 

 

“You’re scared. Whatever this is has you scared.” Sanji concludes. 

 

“I’m not scared!” Zoro barks back, though an unpleasant voice in the back of his head asks him why he’s been avoiding this conversation if he wasn’t scared of the answer. 

 

“Oh yeah, you are. But what of? You’re obsessed with this dream, Robin and Usopp worked it out but Franky didn’t so it’s a culture thing. I can’t see that I could have broken some rule if I was asleep.” Sanji says thoughtfully. 

 

“I’m not scared, just tell me-” He tries again but Sanji shakes his head and starts pacing. 

 

“It’s not some rule against talking about dreams with people who aren’t you or else Robin and you would have reacted right away. Anyway, that would be more offended than scared. So it’s about the dream itself, but you’re not worried about it being a nightmare and if you thought Kalifa was fucking with my head Robin would be in here or getting Nami’s advice.” Sanji continues, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. 

 

“I think I preferred it when you couldn’t understand me.” Zoro groans and falls back on Franky’s bed. 

 

“No you don’t.” Sanji snorts and then falls silent. 

 

Zoro leans up a little to see Sanji frowning and tapping his bottom lip with his finger in thought. The sudden draw of attention makes Zoro want to kiss him, but then again wanting to kiss Sanji is one of Zoro’s basic states of being these days. At almost any given moment if he was asked if he wanted to kiss his husband he’d probably say yes. 

 

“Nami mentioned something about important dreams before…” Sanji says slowly and Zoro’s blood freezes. Nami said she hadn’t said anything but it wouldn’t be the first time that Nami had ‘helped’ him against his wishes at the time. In fairness to her she’d never actually done anything against his will that worked out badly for him, she is his nakama and does have his best interests at heart. 

 

“It was to do with being a witch, getting a dream about magic and then being able to do it. It’s how she knew that she was a witch.” Sanji says thoughtfully. 

 

“I don’t think you’re a witch, although I still can’t explain how you sometimes can kick things so hard that everything catches fire.” Zoro says flatly. He really does want to know how Sanji does that because it would be incredibly useful for him to learn to do himself. 

 

“What can I say? I’m just great. I’m not a witch, I didn’t have a dream about magic. It was a dream about a place I’ve never been to and an animal I’ve apparently never seen which reminded me of you but for some reason that has you scared.” Sanji says with a shrug and Zoro’s heart leaps. 

 

“Reminded you of me or it was me?” Zoro asks, his voice almost whisper quiet. He tenses his hands into fists in Franky’s bedsheets because otherwise he might have to admit that they’re shaking ever so slightly. 

 

“You are scared, you’re terrified. What is it about the specifics of my dream that you’re so emotional about?” Sanji asks, coming and sitting on the bed with Zoro at last. 

 

“I’m not- just tell me which it was.” Zoro asks in quiet desperation. Sanji’s face isn’t angry anymore but instead deeply worried and watching him carefully. 

 

“There’s a wrong answer here, or at least an answer that you really don’t want to hear. Zoro what are you hoping to hear?” Sanji asks, reaching out for him. 

 

“What I wanted was for you to not do this! I don’t want you changing your answers because you’re worried about me or you want to say what I want to hear! Just tell me about your fucking dream!” Zoro snarls and Sanji jerks back in surprise. 

 

“Pity. You’re afraid that I’ll pity you. That I’ll change something because of pity.” Sanji says after a second and Zoro wants to scream but then Sanji starts talking again. 

 

“There was a stream, it was- I don’t know if there’s a word for it in Tsukian but I’ll try to explain. We have lots of words for water, they all mean different things, they have different ideas about them in Baratie. It was water from a mountain, it’s all about something pure coming from something great. Water from there is all about beginnings and newness. I’ve been thinking about it more since I woke up.” Sanji explains, his voice quiet and gentle. 

 

“There was a sword in the water, yours in fact. It was the one your father destroyed and there were others there too. Wooden training swords and smaller plain looking swords. I buried yours.” Sanji continues. 

 

“Buried it?” Zoro asks in surprise. Sanji ducks his head a little and pulls a knee up to his chest, he’s embarrassed. 

 

“I knew it was a dream, I was aware. But it was still one of your swords and it was broken, it didn’t seem right to just leave it there. Your swords are sacred, even when they’re just imagined ones in my own head.” Sanji mumbles a little awkwardly. 

 

Zoro feels the same way about his swords of course, but that Sanji feels that way about them too just because they’re his is an idea so touching and powerful that it almost hurts his heart to hear it. He leans forward and kisses Sanji, the blond wasn’t expecting it so it’s a little clumsy and he just catches the corner of Sanji’s mouth. 

 

“Idiot prince.” Sanji mutters and kisses him back, short and quick. 

 

“The rest of the place was this forest.” Sanji says, pulling back and fussing with his hair and looking anywhere but at Zoro. Zoro wonders if there’ll be a point in time when when he won’t be able to fluster Sanji, he hopes not. 

 

“It felt calm and like home. It was all gold and green, though I can’t imagine where I got  _ that _ idea from.” Sanji chuckles and flicks Zoro’s gold earrings with a finger. 

 

“What about the tiger?” Zoro asks him and Sanji smiles. He looks a little unfocused, as if he’s back in his dream and not in Franky and Usopp’s room. 

 

“It snuck up on me. I found these skulls, fell over them actually, and other bones too. I guess they were the people he had killed before and then he was there. Just this huge, orange striped cat. A tiger.” Sanji says. Zoro feels suddenly a little uneasy. He has killed people before in battle, people who were trying to kill him first and were too injured to survive an attack of his. He didn’t do it deliberately of course but sometimes people bleed too much or don’t know when to give up. Does that leave the kind of mark on his soul that Sanji could see? There were no bones in Sanji’s underwater landscape. 

 

“Were you scared or creeped out?” He asks warily.

 

“I probably should have been. I got the feeling when I looked at him that I wasn’t sure I could win in a fight against it and even if I did I likely wouldn’t win without getting really hurt myself. Which doesn’t make any sense because we fought that dragon and won and a dragon should be more dangerous than a tiger, but that’s how it felt. But even with all that I wasn’t scared. I didn’t feel like it was going to hurt me, I knew it  _ could _ but I just didn’t think that it would. When I got closer I realised that it was you.” Sanji explains. 

 

It was him…

 

“It doesn’t make any sense though, it wasn’t you but it was. It didn’t talk or anything and maybe its eyes looked a little bit like yours but it was clearly a cat. Or a tiger I guess. But it just… felt like you. I don’t know how to explain it.” Sanji sighs, gesturing helplessly to convey himself. 

 

“It’s ok, I know exactly what you mean.” Zoro says slowly and when Sanji looks at him Zoro swears that he could see a flash of blue and white and a far too intelligent black shark eye instead of Sanji’s bright blue one. 

 

“I couldn’t wake up, I can wake up from any dream that’s not that nightmare. Not being able to felt weird and knowing that I saw you as some animal that exists but I’ve never seen before all makes me feel… uncomfortable. This dream didn’t come from my head, it came from outside but I am certain it wasn’t Kalifa.” Sanji asserts and wraps his arms around himself. 

 

“You didn’t get it from Kalifa.” Zoro reassures him. 

 

“How do you know?” Sanji asks, looking at Zoro with worry on his face. Worry that he hadn’t allowed Franky to see, the tiny doubt that he might be wrong. 

 

“Because you got your dream from me. That was my… soul you were dreaming of.” Zoro tells him. 

 

“What? That doesn’t make any sense. Did I not understand that or…?” Sanji asks, frowning at Zoro as he speaks. He’s clearly replaying Zoro’s words in his head, trying to find some way to make sense of them. 

 

“Remember how I told you that there was a difference between loving someone and knowing them?” Zoro presses on. 

 

“Well, yeah. You said it was hard to explain though, and that we kept acting like we had both kinds of relationship. I thought we said we weren’t going to bother with the distinction.” Sanji says, he looks confused but Zoro can see the beginnings of suspicion there. 

 

“Having that dream is the difference. You… you know me.” Zoro says, the words catching in his throat. He’d started to given up on ever being able to say anything like that. 

 

He isn’t sure what he’d expected Sanji to say but he hadn’t expected him to stand there just staring at Zoro without saying anything. Sanji isn’t reacting with the confusion that he’d expected or the surprise and joy that people are supposed to react with. Instead Sanji is just standing there squinting at Zoro, giving him the same assessing look that Zoro’s seen him give meat that he’s deciding how to best cut. 

 

“Not my dream specifically, but there being some sort of thing there like an animal that I knew was you. Having a dream that I can’t wake up from with things I couldn’t possibly know. That kind of dream?” Sanji says thoughtfully. 

 

“It’s always an animal, but the place is part of it too. The place is supposed to be the landscape of your soul, your life shapes it and the animal is who the other person really is. The good and the bad of them alike.” Zoro explains eagerly and Sanji narrows his eyes at Zoro.

 

“What’s wrong?” Zoro asks uneasily, Sanji’s reaction is unsettling him deeply. 

 

“You developed this sudden interest with my dreams a while back. You used to just be concerned about my nightmares but you suddenly became interested in all of my dreams after that, but whenever I told you what they were you lost interest. You were looking for this dream.” Sanji concludes, watching Zoro carefully as he speaks. No doubt Sanji is reading every reaction on Zoro’s face, leaving him to wonder just what it is that Sanji can see. What is he saying without words?

 

“Yeah, I was.” Zoro agrees, he figures that keeping this simple is best. It leaves less room for misunderstanding. He doesn’t want to be unclear on a topic as important as this. 

 

“You started being interested in my dreams because you had your own. Which meant that you knew me first, right?” Sanji asks slowly.

 

“I had mine the night that we got you to Kureha’s hospital.” He admits. 

 

“Why didn’t you tell me? This is supposed to be some big important thing right? You wouldn’t be this worked up about it if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t have been scared of the wrong answer if it wasn’t important. So why didn’t you tell me?” Sanji asks challengingly and Zoro feels the beginning of guilt prickling at the back of his neck. 

 

“You nearly died, it wasn’t a good time to talk about it. You were barely awake for ages and you weren’t dreaming at all for the longest time after you woke up because of what Chopper was giving you. And then…” Zoro trails off wearily. 

 

“So you thought that what, I wouldn’t get it or understand? So you just didn’t bring it up?” He asks, pacing the floor away from Zoro. 

 

Zoro hesitates. Those ideas had crossed his mind but that wasn’t what had halted his tongue.

 

“Baratians don’t have the dream. I was… if I told you about it and you understood what it meant but didn’t have it because you just can’t then I didn’t want you to feel shit about it.” He says, moving towards the pacing and agitated blond man. Sanji jerks back and glares at him. 

 

“I’m going to give you more credit than you probably deserve right now and assume that you weren’t just implying that my people only have shallow romantic relationships because we don’t have this weird magic dream that you all get. I’m not going to kick your ass for that but I might kick it because you’ve clearly been driving yourself nuts about this and you DIDN’T TELL ME.” Sanji snaps at him. 

 

“And maybe I’m wrong but I can only see three reasons that you wouldn’t tell me. Either you thought I was too dumb to get it, or you thought that I’d pity you and pretend that I’d had the dream too so you’d feel better or you just didn’t trust me with the information because we’re not close enough. So what is it, huh?” He demands, shoving at Zoro. He catches Sanji by the wrists again but Sanji just glares at him. 

 

This really isn’t how Zoro had pictured this conversation going. He had thought that if Sanji did have his dream then they’d rejoice together, tell their families and maybe that would be what Sanji had been waiting for and he might be able able to get his husband into bed. He doesn’t want that to happen before Sanji is ready of course but also it’s hard to be married to someone as gorgeous as Sanji and not think about him like that frequently and hopefully. An argument wasn’t what he’d pictured and worse still is that Sanji isn’t strictly speaking wrong. He had avoided telling him despite the urgings of people that he had confided in  _ before Sanji _ . It hadn’t been his biggest fear though and his instinct is to argue with Sanji, to say that he doesn’t get it, say that it’s a culture thing, or deny the totally true accusations. That would be the easier option and the more comfortable one too.

 

But who said that this was going to be easy or comfortable all of the time? 

 

He looks at the fuming blond. The man that he  _ knows _ . The man who has a chunk of Zoro’s soul mixed up in his own. Who in the rushing water of Sanji’s soul is a sheltered island with Zoro’s blades, his colours and his true self and he wants it there without even knowing fully what he’s dealing with. In Zoro’s own soul there’s a river gouged into the rock of his being and Sanji has burst in there and filled it completely. Sanji’s water didn’t drown him when it could have and Sanji has never hurt Zoro when he trusted him with something important. 

 

“I had the dream when you were dying and then you didn’t have it too. I was… I was starting to think I had just imagined it. That I was just so desperate for a sign that you’d live that…” Zoro cuts himself off with a shake of his head. He hates saying that out loud, it’s too personal, too humiliating a thing to admit. And yet he feels Sanji relax in his grip. 

 

“We’ve had two attempts on our lives, an attack on your home and several counts of treason. I think we’ve got enough shit going on Zoro, you don’t need to make things harder by hiding from me.” Sanji says gently. 

 

“I didn’t want to be wrong.” Zoro admits quietly and Sanji pulls his hands free.

 

“No shit, moron.” Sanji snorts and rests his arms on Zoro’s shoulders, one hand touching the back of Zoro’s hair. 

 

“How is it that the man I  _ know _ has to be the one who says no shit and calls me a moron?” Zoro asks, wrinkling his nose in distaste. His hands move to Sanji’s hips and rest there, almost as if they’re about to do one of those Baratian dances that Robin drilled into him. 

 

“Because you’re a dumbass that’s why. But… I get how you can be worried about screwing up something as important as this. I know I worry about it.” Sanji admits a little awkwardly, not quite meeting Zoro’s eyes as he does so. Zoro would bet any amount of money that one of Sanji’s big worries is about knowing what the mythical ‘right time’ is for them to finally have sex. 

 

“Guess that makes you a dumbass too.” Zoro teases and Sanji purses his lips in irritation. 

 

“I am not.” Sanji says firmly.

 

“Yeah you are, I  _ know _ you.” Zoro says and feels an irrational thrill run through him at being able to say it to Sanji. 

 

“That was the other kind wasn’t it?” Sanji asks with a grumble.

 

“It’s not that hard of a difference to learn.” He reasons and Sanji scowls before letting loose a stream of words that sound like the same fast paced altered Baratian that Sanji spoke with Shanks before. It is of course completely impossible for him to understand which is Sanji’s entire point. 

 

“Very funny, I get your point.” Zoro concedes and lets Sanji go, but Sanji doesn’t let go of him. Instead Sanji looks thoughtful and worried.

 

“This dream, it’s supposed to change us? Change how we feel about each other?” Sanji asks, his voice sounding uneasy.

 

“Yes. Well, no.” Zoro answers, reconsidering his response as he speaks. 

 

“Oh, real helpful.” Sanji snorts, never missing an opportunity to mock him it seems. 

 

“It happens because a relationship is changing that way but also it only happens with people who were supposed to share that bond. That’s the theory anyway. The dream is just something that only happens with people who  _ know _ each other so it’s the signal we have for agreeing it’s changed.” He elaborates. It’s a bit of a philosophical problem really. Does he know Sanji because he had the dream or did he only have the dream because he knew him already? Which one came first?

 

“How I feel isn’t any different from yesterday, or the day before that, or the day before that. So if you’re expecting some big change then I don’t know what to say.” Sanji tells him, his voice gentle and wary, as if the blond is trying not to spook him. 

 

“I guess Tuesday was my day then, huh?” Zoro answers brightly and Sanji kicks him in the ankle. 

 

“It’s not a test Sanji. Some things are different now. What we can call each other, how you can act, but you’ve not really let any of those kind of rules stop you before so you probably won’t notice them. You’ll notice the tattoo around your neck though.” Zoro tells him, reaching out so that his hand wraps around almost the whole front of Sanji’s throat. He feels smooth burn scarring under one of his fingers and has to remind himself for the millionth time that Sanji is fine. Sanji jolts a little when Zoro’s hand first makes contact but he relaxes again and doesn’t pull back, speaking volumes about his trust. Sanji’s going to have to trust him to let Zoro near him with a bunch of needles and ink needed to make that tattoo, that’ll be hard especially as Sanji doesn’t trust anyone with even scissors near his neck now. 

 

“Like your parents have? You mean they have those because they  _ know _ each other?” Sanji asks curiously, still not ducking out of Zoro’s light hold on his throat. 

 

“Yeah. The centre would be different though, you’d have my tiger here.” He explains, tapping his thumb in the space below Sanji’s adam’s apple and above the hollow between his collar bones. 

 

“You’d do it? Not some professional or something?” Sanji questions, stepping back and eying Zoro warily. 

 

“Hey, I’m not a professional artist but I have been inking designs on my skin for years! And I’d get proper training first, like everyone does.” Zoro protests.

 

“I’m not saying you’d do a shitty job, I’m saying I’ll kick your ass if you let anyone else put something sharp to my neck. I don’t trust anyone else enough to not…” Sanji trails off and through the flattered glow that he feels he wonders just what would happen. Would Sanji attack whomever it was or would it send him into the panicked state he gets after nightmares?

 

“I won’t let anyone else do it.” Zoro agrees and Sanji nods as if it’s all decided and settled upon. 

 

“Come on then, we should go get breakfast and maybe see if we can find our nakama and talk to them before they start talking about us and nothing else.” Sanji says wryly and heads to the door. Zoro doesn’t bother to fight the grin off of his face and instead just follows Sanji. 

 

He  _ knows _ him!

 

Zoro follows behind Sanji on the way to the kitchen. The weight off of his shoulders is so noticeable that he can't help but wonder if Sanji is right about not keeping things from him. Zoro had always just figured that he would be able to tell what things he should and shouldn't keep quiet about. His parents don't tell each other everything, they don't even spend most of their time within a few hundred miles of each other. It's not that Sanji needs to know every passing thought in his head or that he doesn't get any privacy but perhaps he should start operating on the rule of telling Sanji everything unless he has a good reason not to. 

 

"Do I ever bore you?" He asks curiously and Sanji looks at him in surprise and stops walking. 

 

"Not really, no. Sometimes I am bored but it's not with you. I guess sometimes when you go into really in depth explanations about blades I get kind of lost, there's only so much knowledge that I can carry over from knowing about knives." Sanji answers thoughtfully. 

 

"Okay." Zoro says with a nod and continues on. 

 

"Wh- hey! You can't ask a weird question like that and just walk off!" He shouts, catching Zoro by the arm. 

 

"It's-" Zoro hesitates. He was just about to say that it's nothing, but that's exactly the kind of thing he just resolved against. He has no reason not to tell Sanji this, it's not uncomfortable, too private or a dangerous thing to hear. He should say it. 

 

"I was just wondering if trying to avoid boring you was a good reason to keep things from you." He answers and Sanji rolls his eyes. 

 

"Seriously? I'll tell you if you're boring me. Just assume that unless it's about your toenail clippings or anything else gross that you can tell me and I won't be disinterested." Sanji  answers and keeps walking. 

 

"I'm sure I could make that interesting. I could try to spell words with them for you." Zoro teases and is wonderfully rewarded with the grossed out face that Sanji makes. 

 

"I'll kick your ass if you try that." Sanji assures him and opens the kitchen door. 

 

"Speaking of, we need Robin and Usopp to start teaching us to write. Your note wasn't that helpful, and it looks like it was backwards too." Zoro says, holding the note up with its little pictures facing Sanji. 

 

"No, you just read backwards. That's a good idea though, how hard can reading be when we can already speak the language?" Sanji asks and darts into the kitchen, taking things for them here and there and talking quickly to the chefs as he does so. Zoro can see that Sanji hasn't been in this kitchen long enough to completely get its tempo and movement perfectly but Zoro is sure he'll be able to do it all blindfolded in no time. 

 

"The handwriting will probably take a while, yours is all swooping and curly like your eyebrows. That's probably going to be hard for a non-curly person like me to get so easily." Zoro says slyly, baiting Sanji and deeply enjoying the glare that he can see Sanji giving him through his hair. Sanji marches over to him, a tray with food on it held aloft effortlessly. He stops before Zoro and squares up to him, tilting his jaw defiantly and watching him through angry and narrow eyes. 

 

"Want to repeat that, asshole?" Sanji challenges him. 

 

"Just wondering if you grew that eyebrow after your curly writing style or if your whole country changed their writing to honour that curly brow." Zoro says calmly. He hears the sharp angry breath that Sanji sucks in and sees the way his snow pale cheeks pink with agitation and how he can almost feel the turbulent water of Sanji's soul around him. He's only playing of course but the connection feels even stronger now, but maybe it's just because he knows it's real for sure now. 

 

To his surprise Sanji pulls back a little, the aggression gone from his stance in an instant and his smile spreading wide and yes, sharklike. 

 

"Well, considering that you're the one who  _ knows _ me, curl and all, I don't think that you really have any problems with it at all. Maybe you're even picking on it because you like it more than you want, is that it, mossy cat?" Sanji challenges, his voice light and airy. 

 

"That's- I didn't- hey!" Zoro protests and Sanji gets a little closer to him with that dangerous smile. 

 

"Oh, did I startle the little cat? Come with me, fur ball." Sanji teases, actually scratching under Zoro's chin for a second before sauntering out of the door in a swish of fine fabric and a fog of delicious breakfast smell. Zoro is torn between fuming at losing that encounter and wondering what it says about him that Sanji is his other half. Probably that he doesn't respect people who can't fight him for as good as he gets. Either that or he's a sucker for punishment. 

 

He'll skip on asking his nakama which they think it is. 

 

Mentally chalking another win in Sanji's favour he follows his husband out of the kitchen, determined to get even again somehow. In the meantime though breakfast is a good plan. 

 

He follows Sanji back to their room, they can eat first and then he can deal with the fussing of their nakama after. 

 

"You know we should probably tell our parents about us." Zoro says as Sanji sets the food down. 

 

"I think I'll wait until I see my old man before I go into explaining a big cultural and magical thing like this knowing thing." Sanji says with a shrug. 

 

"Fair enough." Zoro agrees, though he can't help but feel how weird it is that Sanji isn't excited about telling his father, or that Zeff would be okay with not knowing as soon as possible. He supposes that if there's no cultural idea of it for them then it's hard for them to have a normal reaction to it. Weird Baratians. 

 

“So aside from the tattoos is there anything else involved with this knowing thing?” Sanji asks curiously as he sets the food out. 

 

“Well, like I said, you were already doing a lot of it before.” Zoro answers and picks up a mug and pours coffee into it, he didn’t used to be as into the stuff as he is now. He can thank or blame Robin for introducing him to it. Sanji is just as big of a fan of the drink though so Zoro suspects that it’s going to be a stable feature of his life forever more by proxy. 

 

“Nothing like any kind of ceremony?” Sanji questions and settles into his seat. 

 

“No, we’re already married remember? Anyway not everyone who knows each other gets married, like my parents. I mean most do but not all.” he says. Zoro wonders if people ever whispered about the fact that his parents never married, or about his dad being away so much. If they do they’re at least smart enough to do it out of his hearing and presumably his father’s too. 

 

“Yeah but… I guess…” the blond sighs and bites into his toasted bread with sliced tomatoes on top. Zoro can’t see that Sanji looks like anything but disappointed at his answer.

 

“Were you hoping for something like that?” He asks curiously and Sanji looks a touch embarrassed.

 

“Well, it’s just that it was all really weird when we got married. Neither of us could understand jack shit of what the other one was saying and though we both agreed I doubt you really wanted to be there.” Sanji points out. 

 

“It was a perfectly good reason to get married, I wouldn’t have done it if I-” He starts to protest but Sanji cuts him off with a wave of his hand.

 

“No shit, I know all that. I’m just saying that I didn’t exactly like you then, I’d be stunned if you felt any different at that time. Am I wrong?” he asks.

 

“Well… no. But so what? Things obviously changed. Why would you want to go back and redo the past?” Zoro says with a frown. Sure it might have been nice if he and Sanji had met each other some other way and chosen to marry for love and no other reason but who knows if things would have worked out if it had gone that way? He likes their relationship and that includes its less than traditional beginnings. 

 

“It just would be nice to have a ceremony like that where we both understand all of it and I get to hear you say the words that I always imagined. I know the ceremony was a mix of our cultures but I also know it was mostly Baratian for the sake of the court there, but weren’t there things from Tsukian weddings that you had anticipated yourself doing and now you can’t?” Sanji asks, needling at Zoro’s defences. 

 

“It was our wedding, I wouldn’t change it.” Zoro denies firmly and Sanji sighs a little sadly. Zoro looks at him a little suspiciously, what’s his deal with wanting to change things? Is that what he’s trying to do though?

 

“There was a weird lack of walking through fire though.” He says slowly and yeah, Sanji lights up with obvious interest. 

 

“You do what now?” Sanji asks interestedly. 

 

“Walking over hot coals, it’s a cool kind of trick. You usually get it at wedding parties, but you set your own feet on fire regularly so it’d probably be dull for you.” Zoro answers, pretending to sound bored by the idea. 

 

“No, no! That sounds interesting!” Sanji insists. 

 

“You just want a party, don’t you?” he challenges and Sanji looks away a little awkwardly. 

 

“Not just that. But it would be nice to have a party for us where no one committed treason or attempted murder.” Sanji says with a slight pout. 

 

“I always knew Baratians were fussy and demanding but you have such high standards.” he says flatly and Sanji kicks him in the ankle. 

 

“You asshole.” Sanji laughs. 

 

“You’re aware that you’re royalty though right? You can just declare that you’re having a party and it’ll happen. It won’t be one of your stuffy Baratian balls, it’ll be a real party. Tsukians are always up for a good time, trust me. Last night wasn’t really a good example, a real party is way better.” he tells him and Sanji grins a little wider. 

 

“I’ll hold you to that. Are you going to finish that?” Sanji asks him, collecting up their plates and pointing at the crust of Zoro’s bread on his plate. Zoro stuffs it in his mouth instead of answering and Sanji takes the plate away with an air of approval. 

 

He watches Sanji’s fine boned fingers as he stacks mugs and plates neatly in balanced piles on the tray. He leans back in his chair and rests his hands on his stomach, feeling the pleasant fullness of a recent meal. He would help Sanji out but he’s not yet cracked how to stack things just as Sanji likes them and so the other man just ends up redoing whatever Zoro helped with and it ends up being a waste of time. His thumb bumps against the bottom of the blue pendant of Sanji’s, the one that protected him from Kalifa. He holds it up in front of him, it’s strange to see it on him and not on Sanji. 

 

“So this knowing thing… it means that there’s nothing off limits for me to ask about?” Sanji begins, not looking at Zoro and his voice carrying a touch of wariness to it. 

 

“There’s nothing inappropriate now if that’s what you mean, but it doesn’t mean that I’ll answer every question that you have or get pissed off at things that you say but the day you stop pissing me off will probably be the day one of us dies.” Zoro says with a grin. 

 

“That’s a filthy lie, if I go first I’m haunting your ass forever. I’ll move things when you’re not looking, kick your ass if you stop eating well and if Robin or Usopp teaches me to write in Tsukian I’ll write insults on your mirrors.” Sanji says with a certain flourish in his tone. 

 

“Somehow I wouldn’t be surprised.” Zoro agrees. He’s not going to be distracted though, Sanji brought this up for a reason. 

 

“What did you want to ask me about? Something that you think I wouldn’t like you asking me I’m guessing.” He asks Sanji. 

 

The blond sighs and turns to look at Zoro properly. He half sits and half leans on the edge of the table by Zoro and reaches out to touch his pendant on Zoro’s chest. 

 

“Last night was pretty out of control. Kalifa shattered my crown and I lost myself for a while, I think I even tried to attack you. Your own father got so deep under Kalifa’s spell that he tried to murder you. It’s just… I usually don’t fuss with you because if you want to talk usually you do but that was horrifying. Are you okay?” Sanji asks, barely pausing between sentences as if it’ll be easier to talk if he doesn’t give himself a chance to stop asking. Sanji’s face is worried and he can see that the other man has a painfully tight grip on the table, his worry is clearly weighing on him. 

 

What is his answer though? He’s fought seriously with his father before in their duel but that was out of tradition and obligation. Though there was a risk of death it was vanishingly small for him, his father was in greater danger as Zoro was less skilled but still determined to win. Even though Mihawk can be stern and strict and praise is hard to win from him Zoro has never been in any doubt that his father loves him. He’s never thought that Mihawk would cause any harm to him beyond training injuries. He would never try to hurt Zoro, much less kill him. So seeing his father lunging for him with his blade and with murder in his eyes was… surreal. Seeing his parents fight for real was terrifying, his dad protecting him and putting himself in harm’s way against his other half. 

 

“I don’t know.” Zoro answers honestly, if a little uncomfortably. 

 

“I’m so angry that she got away.” Sanji says bitterly. 

 

“Nothing we can do about it now. We’ve just got to keep investigating and make sure we’re all protected from people like her in the future.” he says, tapping Sanji’s necklace. 

 

“Yeah… yeah, you’re right. I guess if you work out how you feel about it then let me know, otherwise I’ll just assume you’re dealing with it okay.” Sanji says, standing up properly again and picking the tray off of the table. 

 

“Thanks.” Zoro responds. He believes Sanji when he says that he’s not going to fuss over him or needle him to talk about how he feels. It’s a pleasant change from Nami and Robin who when they decide that Zoro is withholding something important will frequently choose to make his life hell until he does what they want. He’s glad that he’ll stop getting pointed comments from Robin at least about his dream and failing to tell Sanji. 

 

Sanji nods and heads to their bedroom door with his tray.

 

“I’ll take this back to the kitchen and then we can go find our nakam-AUGH!” Sanji shouts in alarm and Zoro is out of his chair and with both of his remaining swords drawn. Instead of an attacker though he just sees a scowling Sanji and an alarmed guard with one fist raised and having clearly fallen through the door. Sanji must have opened it right as the guard went to knock. 

 

“I- aaaaaugh… I’m so sorry your highness!” The guard whines, looking at Sanji with a look of terror. More fear than he should have for just accidentally startling the prince. It almost looks like guilt… 

 

“Oh, I remember you.” Sanji says, shifting his tray a little and looking down at the guard who flinches back at those words. It seems like word that Sanji can speak Tsukian has spread, and combining that look of guilt with Sanji recognising this particular guard… 

 

“Tell me what you did or said.” Zoro orders the guard, pointing one of his swords between the man’s eyes. He breaks out into a sweat and Zoro feels less and less charitable. 

 

“I- I- I’m sorry. I- we were just-” The man fumbles for his words. 

 

“Just drop it.” Sanji sighs, pushing Zoro’s blade away with his foot. 

 

“No, if he was speaking ill of you then there should be consequences for that kind of disrespect.” Zoro argues. The guard nervously looks between them. 

 

“Oh, he didn’t have a negative word to say about me. He was  _ highly _ complimentary, about parts of me anyway.” Sanji says with a sharp and predatory smile to the guard. 

 

Zoro glares at the guard. He needs to find out just what they had all been saying about Sanji and he needs to do it soon because he’s not happy with this at all. 

 

“Hey, don’t look like that. We don’t have a problem I’m sure he wouldn’t disobey any order I gave him, would you?” Sanji asks the guard, almost sweetly. The guard shakes his head vigorously. 

 

“Great. Now, what did you want?” Sanji asks, looking at the guard again.

 

“I ah… the King wants to see you both. He said he wanted to discuss a few things with you both and your knights. I think there also might be hearings later as they are letting people gather for them.” The guard answers, glancing between them both nervously. 

 

“Take the tray, you’re dismissed. Sanji come with me.” Zoro says stiffly. His husband looks at him in confusion but reluctantly lets the disrespectful guard take the tray from him and scuttle away in fear. 

 

“Why won’t you tell me what they were saying about you?” Zoro asks as they walk along. 

 

“Mostly because it was harmless and I got a kick out of hearing them talk when they didn’t think I knew what they were saying. They won’t assume that again for anyone I’m sure.” Sanji chuckles. 

 

“So why not tell me?” he presses and Sanji laughs. 

 

“I can if you like, but if they think I’m keeping quiet then they’re more likely to do everything I say without question.” Sanji says with a little shrug. 

 

“Sanji, you’re a prince. They’d do whatever you ordered them to anyway, it’s their job.” he argues, stopping walking and catching Sanji by the arm. 

 

“No, they’d do whatever  _ you _ say. They don’t know me enough to respect me yet and a bunch of them think that I shouldn’t be here. They’ll respect me eventually I’m sure, but for now I’ll settle for fear.” Sanji answers with a dark smile and an evil glint in his eyes. 

 

“Holy shit, you’re blackmailing the guards with this stunt. That’s so underhanded and evil.” Zoro remarks in a kind of awe. 

 

“I didn’t catch that word, but if you mean using it against them then yes. Problem?” Sanji challenges, his tone light and sweet. 

 

“No… it’s just I see why you and Robin get on so well, and Nami too. When you’re not doing dumb shit you’re a pretty good strategist.” Zoro says, his mind already rushing into the future when he’ll be ruling with Sanji by his side. With Sanji’s intellect and planning the two of them will be nigh unstoppable. It gives him chills just to think about it. 

 

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” his husband says smartly and starts walking again. 

 

“What’s that other thing the guard was saying that we were supposed to do?” Sanji asks after a moment. 

 

“Oh, hearings. It’s where people come to the castle and tell us their problems or put forward a case that needs a final decision on. It’s often legal crap, two people think they’re right and neither will give in until someone in charge makes a call on it.” Zoro explains unhappily. 

 

“And they’ve exhausted every authority up to royalty. We used to do something similar on occasion but mostly my old man dealt with whatever the nobles couldn’t decide on. I take it you hate the job?” Sanji asks curiously. 

 

“Yeah, I hate it. Often I can’t give whatever help the person needs or I’m trying to pick who’s right between two people in a shitty situation. There’s no right answer.” Zoro says. He wishes that he had an answer to everyone’s problems. He does care about his people deeply but it always seems like whenever his father is the one answering he comes up with better answers. He’s been making Zoro take his turns doing it alone, trying to ease Zoro into more responsibility but it’s one that Zoro would be happier without. 

 

“Sometimes you just have to accept that there’s not always a right answer. You can only be ready tforthe times when you can really help people and keep looking for them I guess.” Sanji tells him.

 

“I still hate it.” Zoro mutters, reaching the door to his father’s study. 

 

“You’ve got me to help now so suck it up and deal with it.” Sanji tells him flatly. Zoro scowls, he’s not sure which is worse, Sanji’s heartless tone or the fact that he’s right.

 

“You’re an ass.” He states as a matter of fact. 

 

“Can’t bother you that much or you wouldn’t like me so much.” Sanji teases. 

 

“Pft, I don’t recall ever saying that I  _ liked _ you.” Zoro says smartly and Sanji makes a noise that is somewhere between outraged and impressed. 

 

Zoro reaches for the handle of his parents chambers but his hand freezes at his hears raised voices inside. 

 

“-not your fault! How many times do we have to go over this?” Shanks shouts. 

 

“I can still see his face Shanks, I can’t just let that go.” Mihawk says darkly, his voice is loud but he’s not shouting like Shanks is. 

 

“He’s fine, you saw him afterwards.” his dad says calmly.

 

“He’s fine because you happened to be in the right place at the right time. If not for you…” his father trails off. Sanji twines his fingers with Zoro’s and squeezes his hand. Zoro looks at him and feels guilt hot inside of his chest, he knows logically that this isn’t his fault but his father is hurting about him.

 

“He’s  _ alive _ and unhurt. I will scour this planet in search of that witch and I’ll end her, I promise.” Shanks says soothingly. 

 

Sanji lets go of Zoro’s hand and jerks his head quickly in the direction of the door, his hint is clear. He should stop standing outside listening into a private conversation and knock. He reaches out and raps sharply on the door. After a second it opens and it’s not Zoro’s father but his dad who has opened it. 

 

“Morning.” Shanks says pleasantly. 

 

“Morning.” Sanji answers back brightly. 

 

Zoro probably should be saying something but instead he finds himself looking at his father. Though the man is dressed in his usual expensive clothes he is less put together than usual. The two halves of the sash around his waist aren’t even, his hair isn’t styled neatly and there are dark circles under his eyes that speak of a whole night awake rubbing at them. He looks bad for him, even when he’s sick Mihawk looks better than this. That means he looked worse earlier and this was as good as he could manage to look. 

 

“You… sent for me, father?” Zoro says slowly and uncertainly. 

 

Mihawk rakes a hand through his hair and stands up a little straighter. 

 

“Yes. I want you to do the hearings today. We didn’t have any yesterday because of the preparations for the evening. We shouldn’t let Kalifa disrupt more of our plans.” Mihawk says in a calm and ordered manner. 

 

“Can Sanji be there too? He is going to be involved with legal things like this eventually.” Zoro says and Mihawk nods slowly. 

 

“That seems sensible. However, Prince Sanji, I won’t allow your decisions alone to hold any weight. You are not yet familiar with our laws or our customs to the level that you need to be for this task. But, by all means observe and talk decisions through with each other. Doing is the fastest way to learn.” Mihawk tells them both. 

 

“That seems fair. Zeff will probably say the same when Zoro ends up helping me do the same thing when we get back.” Sanji responds amiably.

 

“Then I shan’t keep you.” Mihawk says and inclines his head in a slight nod at them both. Normally that would be his cue to leave and even Sanji is turning for the door.

 

“Wait, there’s something else.” Zoro says quickly and Sanji’s gaze flicks between Zoro and his father with a skeptical expression as if to question if now is the best time for what Zoro has in mind to tell him. But his father is clearly torn up about nearly killing him and Zoro knows him well enough to know that he won’t appreciate Zoro bringing that exact subject up. Honestly the only person in the room who could pry that loose from him is the man he knows, Shanks. So, giving him good news and proof that Zoro’s life is still going on and improving is the best thing to do. 

 

“Ah… Sanji and I…” Zoro hesitates, now that he’s started he’s not sure what words he should use. 

 

“Yes?” his father asks, raising a sharp eyebrow. 

 

“We  _ know _ each other. We’ve had the dreams.” He blurts out and Mihawk’s face is slack with surprise. His gold eyes flick over Zoro’s shoulder and Zoro turns to see Shanks staring at him with his mouth hanging open.

 

“Uhhh…” Sanji says also looking between them. 

 

Zoro isn’t quite sure what reaction he was expecting but he was leaning more towards happiness than this. He looks back to his father again whose mouth is slowly curling up into a smile. 

 

“Ah- sorry, sorry son. We’re very happy for you.” Shanks says, walking forward and wrapping his arm around Zoro. 

 

“I’m- thanks… father are you okay?” Zoro asks, looking at Mihawk whose smile now is showing a lot of sharp teeth. 

 

“Don’t. Don’t say it.” Shanks says sharply. 

 

“Say  _ what? _ ” Zoro’s father says slyly with an even wider smile. 

 

“I hate you, don’t do it, just don’t.” Shanks hisses.

 

“You were  _ wrong _ .” Mihawk says with an uncharacteristic amount of glee in his tone. 

 

“Very funny. I’m going to go talk to my crew, we’ve got a witch to hunt.” Shanks sighs and the serious expression returns to Mihawk’s face. 

 

“Don’t try to bring her back alive, I want her dead.” Mihawk says darkly. 

 

“Absolutely.” his dad agrees with an equally sinister expression. 

 

Shanks turns to leave the room and seemingly finds himself face to face with Sanji who had been loitering back away from the three of them. Sanji looks a little wary of Zoro’s dad and he really wishes that one day the two of them will get on fantastically, but today isn’t that day. 

 

“It seems like I owe you an apology. If you’re that much of a match for my son then you can’t be all bad. Mihawk got lucky when he chose you.” Shanks says sincerely and strangely holds out his hand. Sanji looks a little surprised but then with a smile he shakes it. Is that an apology as well in Baratian culture? He had thought that was just a less formal greeting. 

 

“It’s fine, really. Water off a duck’s back.” Sanji says with a shake of his head and a happy smile.

 

Water off a duck’s… what the hell does that mean? Zoro looks up at his father in confusion but Mihawk doesn’t look perturbed at all. Zoro can’t help but feel a little lost.

 

“I never knew how close dad was to being Baratian.” Zoro says quietly. 

 

“You’ve always known your dad is a pirate, he’s part of lots of cultures and none of them.” Mihawk answers simply. 

 

“Yeah, but I never figured that he was  _ normal _ for a pirate. I figured the things he was interested in was just because of places he’d been when he wasn’t here. I didn’t know it was, well, normal.” Zoro answers awkwardly and his father smirks slightly. 

 

“Well, I can always teach you more about what it’s like to be a pirate. Your father never wanted me to though.” Shanks says, looking back at Zoro. Zoro in turn looks at his father, that sounds unlike him. He’s never been one to keep Zoro from knowledge, or if he is then he’s very good at it. 

 

“You’re never here regularly enough for a proper schooling schedule. Zoro has laws to study, swordsmanship, leadership skills, not to mention losing nearly a year in learning another language now. I can’t plan that time and account for when you might be back.” his father says lightly and Shanks pouts.

 

“I can’t help it, but it can’t be that hard, right?” He asks and Zoro catches the little irritated exhale from his father. Zoro's parents don't really argue, Sanji's arrival sparked the worst interaction that he'd ever seen them have. That doesn't mean that they don't disagree though, everyone does even in the healthiest relationships. When he was young it had upset him but Shanks had told him that the difference between a relationship that worked and one than didn't was how people dealt with those disagreements. Knowing how to argue and what was and wasn't okay to say was the important thing. Refusing to have any disagreements ever was way worse for a relationship because it was lying. 

 

This topic though is something that Zoro's parents have always disagreed on. Shanks just has to go away every so often, a few months but never more than a year. Often around six or nine months was normal but it varied. Though his father was by no means a clingy person and was incredibly independent it was always clear that he missed Shanks when he was gone and Zoro's not surprised, Shanks is the other half of Mihawk's soul and vice versa. 

 

"It could be manageable if I had enough warning about when you would be here to plan." Mihawk points out. 

 

"The sea doesn't work like that." his dad replies and Sanji's eyes widen in surprise, as if he's just had some sort of revelation. 

 

"You get-" Sanji says in Baratian and the word that he finishes his sentence with sounds like the word for sea and the word for illness just smashed together. 

 

"Yeah, really badly." Shanks replies, also in his strange accented Baratian. 

 

"Get what?" Zoro asks, waving his hands between them causing both men to look at him. 

 

"Seasick. It's a Baratian thing and also a pirate thing. It's... like being homesick but far worse. It comes from being deprived of contact with the ocean, though for some lakes or rivers will work to fix it. If you stay away for too long it really screws with your health, your mood, appetite, sometimes your sense of balance, sleep, everything. Every Baratian has it to some extent, some people can go years and years without having any contact with the water and be fine others it's months or even days. Most of those just become sailors, fishermen or pirates to deal with it." Sanji explains calmly. 

 

"I didn't know this happened to Baratians as well as pirates." Mihawk says with a raised eyebrow. 

 

That's all very fascinating but Zoro has a bigger concern right now. He remembers the way that Sanji looked when he swam in the waters on the top of the mountain and dived under the surface for an impossibly long time. How he waded into a freezing lake and swam to wash himself like it was the most natural thing in the world to do. He also remembers Sanji's blood staining the river bank after Kaku tried to murder him. For better or worse Sanji seems to be instinctively drawn to water. 

 

"That's not going to happen to you is it?" He asks, voicing his fear. He's not sure how okay he would be with having to lose Sanji for half a year or more every year. How would that even work with the two country arrangement that they've got going on now?

 

"What? No." Sanji laughs brightly. 

 

"I'm not that bad. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd stab a man for the chance to swim right now but I'm good." Sanji says cheerily. 

 

"You and me both." Shanks agrees with a nod. 

 

"But Zoro, I'm not sure if you noticed but there's that big wet thing right by the palace back home, it's called the ocean. I'm well aware of when I'm going back there so I can cope, trust me." the blond reassures him easily. 

 

"And if you'd had to stay here forever, in this landlocked country?" Mihawk asks curiously and Zoro watches Sanji pale and freeze up a little. 

 

"Don't do that to him." Shanks says firmly, defending Sanji in a way that Zoro isn't sure he would have believed he'd see after their first meeting. 

 

"No, it's fine. I was merely curious." Mihawk says, waving a hand as if to blow the idea away. 

 

"We're still going back to Baratie. I think I got too used to your seafood there, I'd miss it." He says to Sanji and Sanji's mouth curls into a pleased if devious smile. 

 

"Do you mean seafood in general or seafood cooked by me, hm?" his husband asks, getting close and watching for any tell to the correct answer. 

 

"Weren't we talking about the fact that we know each other?" Zoro asks loudly, desperately trying to divert the topic. 

 

"Yes, we were." Mihawk agrees and Zoro sags a little in relief though he suspects that Sanji isn't going to let that accidental compliment go, not when he's already sunk his teeth into it like he has. 

 

"Congratulations, I'm very pleased for you both. I'll arrange our best tattoo teacher to speak with you both and arrange a plan that counts in your travel obligations. It might be wise to bring your translators in on this as well. I know how pirates feel about tattoos but I wouldn't want to make your lives harder in Baratie." Mihawk says, his voice all business again, seemingly concluding their personal discussion for now. 

 

"I think some people are weird about it, but who cares what other people think?" Shanks says with a shrug and his hand jammed into his pocket in the picture of casual calmness. 

 

"We should care. There's a difference between defying convention and being ignorant. Anyway, don't you two have hearings to be seeing to?" Mihawk asks pointedly, looking at Zoro and Sanji. 

 

"And I have a witch to hunt down and a crew to speak to. I'll see you later Hawky, I'll let you know if we leave early because we get a lead." Shanks says and leaves the room with an over the shoulder wave without even looking back. 

 

Mihawk gives them both a pointed look and Zoro bows quickly and herds Sanji out of the who manages to swear and execute an awkward little bow of his own on the way out. Zoro pulls the heavy door closed behind them and lingers there for a second, he doesn't know what he should process first. How much his father being nearly mind controlled into murdering him affected the man, the new information about this 'seasickness' that affects all Baratians and his dad or the upcoming preparations for him and Sanji getting their tattoos. 

 

"So what now?" Sanji asks, running his fingers through the back of his hair and working out a few tangles with his fingers. Zoro wonders if Sanji rushed off to find his nakama to talk to them without even brushing his hair this morning. 

 

"Hearings I suppose. It'll probably be the smaller hall where we had breakfast before with my parents. The great hall is still going to be wrecked from my parents fighting." Zoro answers and looks around to work out which direction to go. Sanji tuts and pulls him left just as Zoro had started moving right. 

 

"Does not having the ocean by you bother you that much? It seems like a kind of... weird thing to be obsessed with." He asks instead of protesting Sanji leading him around like a dog. He'd rather have answers right now than an argument. 

 

"But magic dreams are normal? I think we underestimated how different our people are." Sanji says with a weary sigh and looks at him. 

 

"We're the same species though, it doesn't make sense why there are these differences." Zoro grumbles unhappily. 

 

"Well, who knows? Maybe ask Kureha if we ever see her again, she might know. This strikes me as some magic bullshit." Sanji concludes succinctly, if not especially politely. 

 

Zoro looks at Sanji out of the corner of his eye. Sanji didn't really answer his question about not being by the ocean but his answer from before made sense. It's easier to go without something if it's only for a fixed time. He feels the same way about being away from home, though he hopes that eventually Baratie will feel just as much like home as here. 

 

"What if you had somewhere here to swim? At the castle I mean. There aren't any big lakes or swimmable rivers around but I mean how hard can it be to blow a huge hole in the ground and fill it with water?" Zoro asks, if that'll make Sanji happy then he'll do it. 

 

"I like how your first solution to a problem is to blow a hole in the ground." Sanji snickers in amusement. 

 

"That's not an answer." Zoro says as they walk on. He's not going to let Sanji shrug this off. It's good if Sanji's seasickness is bearable because he knows when he'll be back by the sea but Zoro doesn't want 'bearable' for Sanji. He wants Sanji to be happy and if that means that he has to carve a hole in the ground that his family have lived on for generations then that's what he'll do. 

 

"Swimming would be great but... you can't just make a crater in the ground and expect the water to stay there. There's all sorts of engineering involved in that sort of thing." Sanji explains. Zoro grins, Sanji does want somewhere to swim. Hey, maybe his dad will like it if he makes it for Sanji and it'll make them both happier. 

 

"I'll do it. I'm sure Franky would be up to the challenge." He says confidently and keeps walking on to their destination. When Sanji catches up to him there is a lingering smile on his face that doesn't fade for quite a while. 

 

When they arrive at the smaller hall Zoro can already hear the sound of people lingering on the other side of the main doors. They make their way into the smaller hall through side doors and find Robin and Nami already there waiting for them. Nami perks up when they come in, looking between the two of them in barely suppressed eagerness. 

 

"He had the dream." Zoro answers before Nami pries the information out of him with her staff. She makes this high pitched e sound that Zoro is fairly sure went above his range of hearing at some point and then throws herself at the pair of them. Sanji looks pleased if a little confused and rubs her back. 

 

"I'm so happy for you!" She exclaims, her face pressed into Zoro's shirt. She pulls back and looks back and forth between him and Sanji with a brilliantly beaming smile.

 

"Me too." He agrees. He's still feeling relief that Sanji had his dream at all and it hadn't all been in his own scared and sleep deprived mind. 

 

"Congratulations." Robin says a little more calmly, coming up to him and embracing him, then letting him go and kissing Sanji's cheek. The blond turns a burning shade of red hilariously quickly which only deepens when Robin chuckles at his reaction. 

 

"Have you told your parents?" Nami asks him. 

 

"Yeah, we just came from there. We're supposed to be doing hearings now so..." He trails off with a shrug. 

 

"We'll tell the others then. When we left Usopp was still trying to explain the concept of knowing someone to Franky. I knew Baratians didn't really get it but I guess I didn't realise how much they didn't until I saw Usopp trying to explain, even he seemed slightly shaky on the concept himself. How's Sanji dealing with it?" Nami asks, her voice dropping into more hushed tones at the end. Zoro looks over and sees that Sanji is still trying to compose himself over Robin kissing him and then his embarrassment at reacting so much to it. 

 

"He feels the right things but I think we're more different than we thought. Tsukians and Baratians I mean. He says he doesn't feel any different than before but he seems to think it's a change that had already gradually happened. But then why would his dream be so much later than mine?" he tries to reason. This whole thing is just super puzzling. 

 

"Well, I had a thought about that and I think I have an answer. Sanji was too sick to dream right away and that's not too strange, people have had delays because of extreme illness before. But afterwards Sanji took to wearing this, remember?" Nami says and tugs gently on the necklace around Zoro's neck. Sanji's necklace, the one with the magic repelling blue stone in it. 

 

"Yeah, it saved our asses last night. If he hadn't been wearing his crown and this then he would have been alone in trying to get more stones to fight of Kalifa's magic." Zoro points out. It was damn lucky and he dreads to think about what would have happened otherwise. So many things nearly did go wrong last night, Mihawk's shaken state at what he nearly did is proof enough of that. 

 

"Indeed. But think of it this way. This stone keeps illusion magic out, he's been wearing it non stop since you had your dream and only took it off last night because of Kalifa and then he lost his crown when she broke it. Last night was the first time he'd been open to illusion magic. The dream is magical, it has to be. You see inside another person's soul it's like... involuntary scrying. He probably has known you for a while, the dream just couldn't get in." Nami says with an excited twinkle in her eye. 

 

Holy shit... she's right. 

 

"No... I took it off for a minute when I showered. Right before I... painted those stripes on you." Sanji trails off as the idea hits him, obviously he had started listening at some point. 

 

"Stripes from an animal you've never seen." Zoro says as he finishes off Sanji's thought. 

 

"And as soon as I picked that shard out of your head last night you passed out and then you had the dream." he adds in wonder. Well, at least he doesn't have to have any lingering worries about a concussion. 

 

"Sanji, you mentioned that this stone is really common in Baratie, right?" Nami asks, looking at Sanji. 

 

"Yeah. It's in all sorts of jewelry that people wear every day. There are mines for it all over the place but it's not uncommon for it to be in the... I don't know the word Robin. I mean-" Sanji looks at Robin and speaks a word that Zoro doesn't know either. 

 

"Bedrock. So underneath the ground a little way. I suppose large concentrations of it in an area would have the same effect even if a person wasn't already wearing it as jewelry." Robin hums thoughtfully. 

 

No wonder the romantic relationships of Baratians are so weird. If they can't even tell when they know someone or not there'd be no culture of it so even if someone was able to be free from those rocks enough to have the dream they would have no idea what it meant just like Sanji this morning. He wonders if there's a similar reason why they find it hard to distinguish between friends and nakama and what those relationships entail. Man, Baratians are a mess. 

 

"That's one mystery solved. Now if only it could help me find that witch." Nami says and he expression sours. 

 

"Shanks is looking for her and Mihawk is still coordinating a search Nami, there's only so much we can do. We know how to stop her now so we can protect people." Sanji tells her soothingly.

 

"Except you may have a hard time selling people on the idea of stopping that magic if it'll also interfere with them knowing their other half." Robin adds a little grimly. 

 

"There's got to be a balance. Either way, I've got to have the hearings now and I don't want to let my father down by barely doing them." Zoro says and the two women nod in agreement and take their leave with a few last congratulations and a friendly punch to his arm from Nami. With that it's just him and Sanji in the room with a few waiting guards who are looking anywhere but Sanji. He supposes that Sanji was right in a way, all of the guards are on their absolute best behaviour now when he's around. No doubt they'll all eventually be grateful to Sanji for not telling him whatever it is that they've been saying and then it'll make them feel loyal to him out of gratitude. It is like one of Nami's plans. No wonder the witch likes him so much. 

 

Zoro is pleased to see that someone at least had the forethought to put out more than one chair on their side and so he and Sanji take their seats in the larger fancier feast chairs. 

 

“Ready?” Zoro asks Sanji who gives a mild shrug of agreement. So it might be a worthy thing to do but it doesn’t change the fact that these hearings often descend into bickering which is nothing but dull for Zoro. This is something that Sanji is clearly aware of. Nevertheless he nods at the guards who haul the main doors open and usher the first case in. It turns out to be two men who are equally stubborn and had kept escalating their problem which was nothing more than a landslide making the previous borders of their land unclear and both were claiming that the other was trying to steal from them. 

 

Sanji watches the pair silently and listens to Zoro’s questions. It is clear though that both men are struggling to keep their eyes off of the fair prince and with the way that his unusual gold hair spills across his fine face Zoro can’t blame them. Still, he doesn’t want to acknowledge or encourage more ogling of his husband so he pretends as if he doesn’t notice. 

 

He hands down his judgement, a pretty standard one at that, and the pair leave with one resigned and the other triumphant. When the door shuts after them Sanji speaks. 

 

“So… am I following correctly that your judgement was that the man who had fought hardest for his land and was the last to resort to calling for help legally was the rightful owner  _ because _ of that?” Sanji asks, looking sidelong at Zoro. 

 

“Yeah, I guess that’s not how it’s done in Baratie.” Zoro responds.

 

“Well, maybe we might but that’s only because it wasn’t farming, hunting or fishing territory. Most likely we’d just divide the contested part in half and send them away. If it was farming, hunting or fishing territory that the other needed to survive then it would go to whoever needed it most, regardless of who owned it first.” Sanji tells him. 

 

Zoro wants to say that it’s a weird idea and disregards the strength and honour of the people involved, it’s his kneejerk reaction and a perfectly reasonable defense of his culture. But… well Sanji is talking about intervening in a situation that could take needed food away from people. Does he really believe that someone else’s pride is more than saving someone else from a slow and painful death?

 

“I’ll keep that in mind next time, I hadn’t thought of it that way.” Zoro says thoughtfully. 

 

“Really? I thought we were sticking to your laws and beliefs here.” Sanji says in surprise. He hadn’t been lecturing or judging, just observing. 

 

“I’d be an idiot not to learn what your people would do. Only a weak man is afraid to change what he thinks or does because he’s afraid of being wrong. I’m not a weak man.” Zoro says firmly. 

 

Sanji looks at him and makes a frustrated noise in his throat as he glances around the room. 

 

“Why do you have to say shit like that when I can’t get you alone, huh?” Sanji says in frustration, though his tone is one that Zoro has learnt to recognise as usually occurring before Zoro gets himself a lapful of enthusiastic and at least partially naked Sanji. 

 

Zoro reminds himself with steely determination that he can’t just bail on this one case in, no matter how attractive his husband is. He occupies himself instead with the next few cases and for the most part he and Sanji either have laws that completely agree or the differences make sense geographically. Zoro can hardly sentence a thief to six months labour at sea when Shimotsuki has no ocean borders. 

 

The tenth case makes Sanji sit up in alertness before Zoro even realises why, though he gets it after a second. The man who just entered is weak and clearly poor, Zoro can tell that from his clothing and walk. What Sanji noticed first and Zoro took a moment to is that the man is painfully thin, gaunt hollow cheeks and spindly fingers. 

 

“Your majesties.” The man says, bowing shakily. Not all of the people today have addressed both of them but it’s not hard to guess who Sanji is. 

 

“I come from a village two week’s ride away and I have come to beg for your help. The whole village is starving. Adults are starving themselves first so that their children may eat and a curse of diseases is spreading among us for we are so weakened.” The man pleads in a warbling voice. 

 

Zoro’s first reaction is pity and he can see from the wide eyed look on Sanji’s face and the way that he is on the edge of his seat that the feeling is mutual. Zoro’s second reaction is suspicion. An assassin just escaped their grasp, murdering a man who tried to murder Sanji himself. In this very room he and his loved ones were attacked and now a man shows up at their door, pleading the one thing that would tempt any Baratian into helping but especially Sanji. No… this is too easy. He doesn’t want to let Sanji out of the safety of their castle just so that he can wander right into the hands of a murderer. 

 

“That is terrible,” Zoro says slowly, “we’ll send food back with you right away.” 

 

“That is very generous your highness, but… we need help as well. Our crops are dying and sicken us, even if you send us a month of food we will begin starving in a month.” The man says sadly. The answer was obvious and maybe Zoro is paranoid but the man didn’t look as thankful as he might for a month of food for his village. 

 

“Zoro, that won’t fix the problem. We need to find out why there’s a famine and-” Sanji starts to protest in Baratian. 

 

“Excuse us, I need to speak to the King about what help we can offer. Sanji come with me. Guards, please make our guest comfortable in here when we’re away and get him something to eat.” Zoro says, walking to the door and leading Sanji out with a hand on his elbow. He pushes Sanji out into the hallway and then hesitates in the doorway and looks back at the starving man. 

 

“What town did you say you were from again?” Zoro asks, though he knows full well the man didn’t say. 

 

“Foosha Village.” The man says as a guard ushers him into a chair. The name rings a bell in Zoro’s mind and he winces when he recognises it. That’s Luffy’s home town. If he had any choice before about whether to go or not then he certainly doesn’t now. 

 

“I’ll speak to the King, and see about getting you that meal first.” Zoro says and leaves the room, shutting the door behind him. Sanji is already glaring at him accusingly, all previous flirtations forgotten. 

 

“Are you really going to just-” Sanji starts but Zoro reaches out and covers Sanji’s mouth with a hand. 

 

“Shh!” He hisses and pulls a fuming Sanji along until they are out of earshot of the room. It’s not that far, Tsukian doors aren’t made to make the lives of eavesdroppers and spies easier. Sanji’s expression is telling him that he’d better have a REALLY good reason for doing that and manhandling him out of the room or else Sanji is going to be very angry. Probably the kind of angry that results in a surprise test of Zoro’s ability to defend himself against an angry unarmed man. 

 

“Hear me out.” He says, holding his hands up in surrender. Sanji says nothing but watches him with narrowed eyes.

 

“Several people have just tried to kill both of us on multiple occasions, it’s not smart to just run out of the castle blindly with the first person who asks us to. I know you want to help and I do too but it’d be better to be smarter about this. If someone wanted to lure you into a trap this is all they’d have to do, it’s the same stupid leaping to your death that Luffy would do if you threw a steak in the ocean. He’d run in and drown himself.” Zoro explains and Sanji doesn’t look any less pissed off. 

 

“If I go I might die but if I don’t go and he’s telling the truth then potentially hundreds of people could suffer the most agonising death possible. I don’t need to stand around contemplating what the right choice is! I won’t let people starve and if you’re asking that of me then-” Sanji starts to snarl but Zoro interrupts him before that can escalate further. 

 

“Did I say that you couldn’t go? Trying to stop you from helping someone like this is like me trying to argue the sun out of setting. Of course you’re going.” He says and Sanji looks puzzled for a moment before relaxing and regarding Zoro with some suspicion. 

 

“So why all of this? Why not tell him we’ll help?” Sanji asks in puzzlement. 

 

“Two reasons. Firstly, if he is trying to kill you then I don’t want him thinking that you are falling into his trap and secondly I need to talk to my father about what real help we can send.” He explains. 

 

“Great, let’s go talk to him.” Sanji says brightly and marches off in the direction of Mihawk. Zoro rolls his eyes at his idiot husband and grabs him by the back of his shirt at the collar. 

 

“I said  _ I _ was gonna talk to him, stupid curly brow. He’s not going to want to agree to this and I’m gonna have to talk him into it. I can’t do that if you pick a fight with him the moment he says no. You have no calm when it comes to this so if you’re there you’ll be ensuring that we won’t go because we’ll be banned from leaving.” Zoro points out and Sanji winces. 

 

“I  _ know _ you, okay? You  _ know _ me too, so have a little faith in me.” Zoro urges and Sanji squeezes his eyes shut like he’s in pain and then breathes out a harsh little breath. 

 

“It’s killing me that me being able to help that man rests on someone who isn’t me convincing another person, but… I trust you. I hate this, but I trust you.” Sanji says unhappily. He meets Zoro’s eyes and Zoro can feel just what a huge demonstration of faith this is for Sanji. He won’t let him down. 

 

He reaches out and pulls Sanji close enough to kiss him then does just that. 

 

“Love you,  _ know _ you.” He says whisper quiet. 

 

“And people act like I’m the romantic sap.” Sanji teases with a grin that Zoro can feel. 

 

“Shut your stupid face and go find the others.” Zoro snorts, shoving Sanji away. 

 

“Ah, there we go. Back to normal!” Sanji cackles and backs off. Zoro flips him off and goes to meet his father. Sanji definitely isn’t turning him soft and mushy or anything. He’s a fierce warrior and incredibly rugged and intimidating. Yep.

 

Zoro walks past the guard on the door and knocks on the heavy wood.

 

“It’s me, father.” He calls out.

 

“Enter.” Comes back, muted through the wood. 

 

Zoro does so. His father is sat at his desk surrounded by a multitude of papers and several maps are spread on the floor as well as the file on Kalifa conspicuously open on his desk. His father looks up at him as he comes in and shuts the door behind him. 

 

“A case needing my input already?” Mihawk asks with some surprise and he rubs at his tired eyes as he speaks. 

 

“Kind of. A man came from Foosha Village claiming that there’s a famine and some disease there. He certainly looked like he was starving. He was begging for aid.” Zoro summarises quickly, cutting out much of the emotional detail for he knows that his father won’t appreciate it. 

 

“I am assuming that your husband leapt at the chance to help. Tell me you haven’t allowed him to commit to anything.” Mihawk says flatly. 

 

“I took Sanji out of the room before he had the chance. I promised we’d send food back with him and get him a meal, but I didn’t promise anything more.” Zoro nods. Of course his father knows plenty about Sanji, no doubt he was aware of Sanji and Zeff’s traumatic past too. Very little escape’s Mihawk’s golden and seemingly all seeing eyes. 

 

“Well, thank you for keeping me updated. You’re excused.” He tells Zoro with a nod.

 

Zoro hesitates, he’s not done yet. Why does his father think that he is?

 

“Father, I- that wasn’t all.” Zoro says warily and Mihawk again looks up at him, both surprised and expectant. 

 

“I’ll send the food shipment with the man tomorrow morning and tell him that’s all we’re doing. Then me, Sanji and our knights will take a different route and-” Zoro begins to explain but Mihawk holds a hand up to stop him. Zoro would wonder if he has a better idea except for the fact that the look on his father’s face is displeased and quickly becoming more so. 

 

“I was under the impression that the reason you were just sending aid and not going yourselves was because you too were aware of the obviousness of this trap. Yet you plan to just take the scenic route into your deaths? I’m going to assume that I’m just overly tired and misheard you, so again I tell you that you are excused.” Mihawk says a little sharply and turns back to his desk. 

 

This isn’t going how Zoro imagined. Perhaps a different tactic is better here. 

 

“I know it might be a trap, I was aware. But the thing is, nothing can keep Sanji from helping people who are starving and he doesn’t consider just sending a month of food helping. It’s probably just making them suffer for longer actually. Whether me and my knights go or not I can promise you that by morning Sanji will be on his way to Foosha. He stands a better chance by far if we all go and if it is a trap we might even be able to capture whoever it is that’s plotting against us and get more information.” Zoro proposes. It’s a good plan and he knows that with their group they can succeed. 

 

Mihawk stands up and faces Zoro with anger in his eyes and it takes all that Zoro has not to step back away from him. He doesn’t think that his father would hurt him but his disapproval pains Zoro in deep ways. Reaching his level of strength and surpassing him is Zoro’s greatest goal and he takes his father’s approval as a sign that he is heading in the right direction, so losing it pains him. 

 

“You nearly died at the feast and Sanji was also at risk, before you even got here he nearly died because of your incompetence at keeping him alive. If you cannot make him see sense and stay in this castle then I will restrain him in the dungeons.” Mihawk says darkly. Zoro thinks that a few chains, guards and doors wouldn’t keep Sanji from helping but he decides not to mention that. 

 

“You had me marry him because famines like this have been happening, what was the point of it all if you’re just going to keep him and his people locked up in here where they can’t help?” Zoro reasons. Sanji brought equipment and seeds with him and lots of tools that Zoro doesn’t know the use of.

 

“And he can get guards to bring him samples or anything else that he might need but none of you will leave this castle until this threat is passed. Do not make me have to tell you again, and do not speak any more of this idiocy.” Mihawk responds angrily, getting into Zoro’s space as he speaks. 

 

“I’m not incompetent or an idiot! You were already ruling this whole country at my age. I know what I’m doing!” Zoro argues back. What is the guard outside of the door making of this conversation? Do they whisper about him like they did about Sanji?

 

“And it is a good thing that you lost to me in our duel because you are clearly nowhere near ready to rule and you are proving that you are further from that goal than I anticipated. Neither you, your husband or any of your shared knights are to leave this castle. That is a direct order, now get out.” Mihawk says coldly and Zoro feels as if his father just ripped his heart from his chest. Not fit to rule? Just right now or… or ever? There have been princes and princesses in the past who couldn’t surpass their parents in their lifetimes and that rarely ended well for them. Zoro had never thought that would be him but if his father thinks that- no… no. He’s wrong. He is. 

 

Zoro’s hands clench into fists, both out of anger and to stop the shameful trembling of them. He raises his chin defiantly and glares at his father. 

 

“You know what they don’t have in Baratie? Revolutions. Because their people don’t starve to death or die of diseases that get you when you’re that weak. Maybe it’s a trap out there but you’re hiding us in here like you’re weak and scared. If people see that in us then no wonder people are trying to get rid of us and maybe they should do it too. If you’re too scared to do what should be done then why are we here?” Zoro demands, aiming for the same cold tone his father used but it comes out angrier than he meant it to. He shuts up before his tongue can get him in more trouble, though he’s not sure how much worse he can make it. He turns on his heel and leaves before his father can say another word, shutting the door sharply behind him. 

 

The guard is staring intently at the wall in front of him and absolutely not at Zoro. 

 

Zoro resists the urge to demand of the guard what his problem is but instead just marches off to his room. He wrenches open the door and goes inside, slamming it after him. Sanji, Chopper and all of their shared knights are waiting in the room. Sanji is halfway through packing a bag and Nami and Luffy are leaning over a map on the table but all of them look up at him as he enters, perhaps more dramatically than he meant to. 

 

“Well?” Sanji asks after a few moments of Zoro just staring blankly into the room while slumped against the door. 

 

“He… he said that all of us were forbidden from even leaving the castle. It was a direct order.” he says numbly and several of Zoro’s knights slump in resignation. 

 

The idea occurs to him slowly and unpleasantly. He let Sanji down. He asked Sanji to have faith in him and he failed. He failed.

 

“Hmm, do you think they would have locked our horses up?” Sanji asks Franky and Usopp in Baratian. Sanji is still thinking of going, of course he is. Zoro supposes that he could cover for Sanji’s absence and stay here and-

 

“You do realise that us letting you leave is a violation of that order too? Everyone in this castle will try to stop you.” Robin points out. 

 

“Was that what they said, they’re still planning on leaving?” Nami asks, looking at Sanji and the other Baratians in surprise. 

 

“New plan then?” Luffy asks, folding his arms and looking around their group. 

 

“Escaping at night makes sense. We could make a big show about being resigned to staying so they’re not expecting it.” Sanji says with a thoughtful hum.

 

“But you can’t disobey the King, surely? And… and Zoro can’t do that right?” Chopper asks and looks at them all with wide eyes. 

 

“This is gonna suck.” Usopp groans and looks over the map again. 

 

“I don’t have a choice Chopper, you took an oath as a doctor not to let people suffer when you could help. So I can’t-”

 

“We’re going.” Zoro blurts out, his mouth having decided to speak before his brain did and cutting off Sanji in the process. 

 

Everyone in the room stares at him, though the Baratians are more surprised at him interrupting than what he said. But the Tsukians are all surprised at his words for the right reasons. 

 

“You’ve never disobeyed a direct order from your father.” Nami says slowly, tapping her fingers on her lips. 

 

“Yeah, I know. You don’t have to-” Zoro sighs, pushing himself away from the door. 

 

“Shut up, I wasn’t finished yet. Your father won’t expect you to disobey. If we do what Sanji said and make a show about not going then we can make this work. But it’d be best if we didn’t all go on the same day.” Nami continues and leaves Zoro torn between arguing back about her telling him to shut up and on the other hand applauding her cunning plan. 

 

“It would make sense for Zoro to want to hide in his room with Sanji and avoid his father if the request to go went so badly that we were all banned.” Robin agrees and then repeats what she said in Baratian for Franky. 

 

“And if we were really obviously here he’d assume that you were here.” Yosaku says with a nod. 

 

“So we’re staying here then.” Johnny says with a sigh. Zoro feels a little pang of regret, the pair are the only ones of his knights that he’s not nakama with so they often end up paired away from the rest of the group on missions. Of course there was Kaku but that’s a whole different mess that Zoro doesn’t have the space to think about right now.  

 

“No. If we really want to fool the King we’ve got to do the opposite of what we first think to do. Like… Luffy. We’d never go without you, so we have to. You stay here with… Robin and then the rest of us will go on. You two act like we’re here for as long as you can and then after a few days or whenever you’re discovered, run after us. You’re from this place so you know how to get there without Nami, right?” Sanji says to Luffy. 

 

“That’s a lot of lying.” Zoro says as something unpleasant squirms in his chest. 

 

“I can get there. But I don’t wanna stay behind.” Luffy says with a pout and folds his arms sulkily. 

 

“Luffy, I know I can count on you. If you’re pretending that we’re here the staff will only buy it if all of our meals are eaten, not to mention those of the rest of the group. If there’s anyone who can manage that it’s you.” Sanji says slyly and with an affectionate smile. 

 

“At last, a plan that hinges on how much Luffy can eat.” Nami says with a grin and elbows Luffy in the side. 

 

“I’ll do it. You can count on me.” Luffy nods enthusiastically, his face the picture of sincerity. 

 

“I knew I could.” Sanji replies brightly.

 

“Okay everyone, let’s go! We’ve all gotta look disappointed and then pack when we’re back to our rooms!” Luffy declares to the room. Nami rolls up her map and turns around to Luffy and hits him with it. 

 

“And be  _ quiet _ about it!” She hisses at him. Luffy looks a little sheepish and the group starts filing out of Zoro and Sanji’s chambers in subtle ones and twos with breaks between them leaving. 

 

“Zoro, could you help me with something?” Sanji asks and heads into their bedroom without even checking to see that Zoro is following. He will of course because Sanji almost certainly doesn’t need help with something, he probably wants to demand to know what the hell went wrong. 

 

Sanji is at the open wardrobe but instead of looking in it he looks at Zoro. The green haired prince closes the door behind him and the uncomfortable feeling in his chest intensifies. None of this day has gone how he expected, for better and worse. 

 

“Are you okay?” Sanji asks, looking him up and down. 

 

“I don’t know what happened, I tried to make a good argument but he just didn’t want to listen and the more I tried to convince him the worse it got and he’s  _ angry _ now!” He blurts out before he knows what he’s doing. 

 

“I didn’t ask what happened, I asked if you were okay. You look like you’re going to be ill.” Sanji says and pushes Zoro down onto the edge of the bed. 

 

“Normally I’d figure that things just went bad and you’re upset but you’ll be alright but…” Sanji trails off and looks Zoro up and down warily. 

 

Zoro nods and swallows around the lump in his throat. 

 

“I think I reacted badly to something he said.” Zoro tells Sanji and he clenches his hands in the bedsheets as the memory of the angry words washes over him. 

 

“What did he say?” Sanji asks and two soft and calloused hands run over his cheeks and then down to the back of Zoro’s neck where they clasp shut. Sanji then wedges himself between Zoro’s knees and just stands there like that. It’s not a hug but the weight of Sanji’s presence is somehow reassuring to him. 

 

“He… don’t you want to know what I said? I was the one who overreacted. Shit, maybe I should go apologise. I definitely should.” Zoro breathes as his father’s words echo in his mind. Can his father disinherit him? Surely not if he wins the title from him eventually by right. 

 

If.

 

“We’ll get to that. I’ve got to know what you reacted to first don’t I?” Sanji says reasonably. Zoro must be losing his mind if Sanji is sounding this reasonable. Actually, considering what he said to his father and that he is planning on treasonously disobeying a direct order from his father he mind well have already lost it. 

 

“He said that he didn’t trust us out there, didn’t trust me to keep you alive and that I was incompetent.” Zoro recounts, staring at Sanji’s midsection. He drops his gaze down to his own hands in his lap and keeps talking, even though it feels like rubbing salt in a wound. 

 

“Said that I wasn’t fit to rule.” He finishes. 

 

Sanji says nothing. He’s not digging his fingers into the back of Zoro’s neck but his pale hands feel tense and his whole body is rigid. Zoro looks up at Sanji and is just able to see through Sanji’s hair and see both of his eyes at once. They’re wide and his eyebrows are drawn down harshly, his mouth is pressed into a tight and angry line. 

 

“Sanji?” Zoro asks warily.

 

“I’m… I’m gonna kick his ass.” Sanji vows darkly. 

 

Zoro is about to protest when a… burning kind of smell reaches his nose. He looks down to see that Sanji’s feet and halfway up his shins are aflame as well as the bedsheets. Zoro leaps back, hauling his legs up on the bed and reaching down in an attempt to smother the fire with the rest of the bedsheets that aren’t on fire. 

 

“Oh shit, shit, sorry!” Sanji apologises, his own weird non-magical, non-devil’s fruit fire snuffing itself out. Sanji kicks at the fire and between them they put it out. Zoro falls back on his bed with a groan. How is he supposed to deal with this?

 

“So what did you say that was so bad then?” Sanji asks quietly as he sits down on the bed too.

 

“That people don’t starve in Baratie and if we had the chance to use your knowledge and didn’t because he refuses to send us then we deserve all of the rebellion we’ve been getting. And I called him weak and scared. MY FATHER. WEAK.” Zoro says in a voice that he can hear is pitching towards terror.

 

“Holy shit.” Sanji remarks and sits up so that he can stare down at Zoro. 

 

“Well, maybe it’s a good thing that we’re busting out of here tonight. You two should probably cool off for a while and then if he doesn’t take back what he said I’ll break some of his bones.” Sanji says with violent glee in his voice. 

 

“Are you crazy?!” Zoro demands, sitting up. “He’ll kill you, he’s probably gonna kill me. I must be crazy thinking about breaking out. I’ve never disobeyed him like this, I don’t know what to do!” 

 

“Really? Never? You’ve never said something terrible and insulting that you didn’t really mean, or break something priceless, or offend some important person, or do something you were explicitly told not to?” Sanji asks, listing a bunch of things off of his fingers and suddenly so much of Zeff and Sanji’s interaction is explained. 

 

“No, that’d be hugely disrespectful.” Zoro answers with a shake of his head and Sanji just stares at him flatly for a moment. 

 

“Okay, yeah I can kind of see why Shanks thought you were forced into this marriage thing if you’d always done what Mihawk wanted before. Luckily for you being a bad influence is my speciality! I’ll bust you out of here and we can go off on a forbidden mission to save a huge number of people from certain death!” Sanji declares, bouncing on the mattress so that he catches himself on his feet and then stands up dramatically. 

 

“You make it sound like I’ve never done anything without him telling me to. I have a spine you know.” he argues grouchily and Sanji drops back down onto the mattress on his knees. 

 

“Pft, boy do I know it. Our whole relationship is us butting heads and testing the other.” Sanji laughs. It falls silent between them and Sanji reaches out and gently traces the stripes on Zoro’s face and Zoro wonders if he’s thinking of his dream. 

 

“You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to. You’re feeding that man and you did all you could to get us there with the King’s permission. Staying here would be helping us too, I’m sure. Your relationship with Mihawk isn’t like mine with my father, if you wanted to stay I wouldn’t hold anything against you. You did something brave to help those people, that’s what counts to me.” Sanji tells him softly. He’s giving him an out, and no doubt he means it too. 

 

“They’re my people, I can do more. And you’re my husband, I don’t want you wandering the country on your very first visit without me.” Zoro says with a shake of his head. 

 

“Hah, what do you think I’m gonna do? Get lost? Hm, actually you’re right, it’d be unfair to do that without the master of getting lost there to teach me.” Sanji laughs and Zoro shoves him over so that he’s flat on his back on their bed and sniggering to himself.

 

“You think you’re really funny don’t you, you idiot.” Zoro says flatly and Sanji leans up on his elbows and grins at Zoro. 

 

“Well, no matter what you think I’m supposedly your perfect person right? So what does that say against you huh, moss brain?” Sanji retorts. 

 

Zoro gets the same frustrated feeling that he normally gets around the other man, where he’s not sure if he wants to smother him with a pillow or kiss him just to shut him up. But that’s normal by now. 

 

He’s really going to break his father’s order and escape the castle with his other half and his nakama, or most of them anyway. It still doesn’t sound like the kind of thing that he would ever do and yet he knows that he will. 

 

It still doesn’t even seem real when Sanji is perched on the windowsill of a window in their main room after dark. He’s peering down and waiting for the guards to move on. There are double the usual number in this area, clearly Mihawk took Zoro’s statement that Sanji would try to escape seriously. Zoro also knows that supposedly Usopp is in the distance by the far treeline with their horses. Sanji looks down again and then waves his arm widely and slowly in the air before dropping it again. Usopp should be able to see that from where he is but how on earth he can signal back is- something whizzes by Zoro’s cheek and hits the wall behind him, exploding in a puff of green smoke. 

 

“He’s ready.” Sanji says and hefts his bag on his shoulder and throws Zoro’s own one at him. He catches it and feels his insides twist with worry. His father will be furious. 

 

“If the guards catch us-” He starts to protest. He wants to go but this plan feels unsafe. It feels like being dragged to his father’s office having been caught escaping and having to see the anger and disappointment in his father’s eyes. 

 

“You and I can take anyone Zoro. Besides, they spend all their time stopping people getting  _ in _ . They don’t know the first thing about stopping an escape. Now, breaking out of my palace when Zeff has tried to keep me in is a real challenge, they’ve had practice.” Sanji says with a grin and a waggle of his stupid eyebrows. 

 

“How often do you  _ do _ this?!” Zoro demands quietly. 

 

“Not often anymore, Zeff realised that banning me from leaving ever was pointless and doesn’t bother. I kind of like having the challenge again. Last chance to back out.” Sanji looks at Zoro as he says that last part. 

 

“I’m no coward.” Zoro says stubbornly and tightens his bag against his back. 

 

“Damn right. Come on, and land quietly.” Sanji urges him and then just… steps out of the window into thin air and plummets from view. Zoro rushes to the ledge and sees a shadowy Sanji lurking down on the floor. Zoro didn’t even hear him touch the ground. 

 

Zoro has a last second internal battle between doing his duty and doing the right thing until the right thing and Sanji win out and he leaps from the window. He lands on the floor and rolls. 

 

“I said land quietly, not like a sack of fucking potatoes!” Sanji scolds him and boots him down the last ledge to ground level where he lands in a hedge.

 

Sanji again lands before Zoro without a sound except for the exaggerated sigh and a disapproving tut. Sanji hauls Zoro out of the shrubbery and the pair of them sprint for the treeline. Sanji’s form is dark in one of Luffy’s dark red cloaks, darker than anything that Sanji owned. They needed to blend into the night and Sanji’s normal attire isn’t exactly unnoticeable. 

 

“Usopp.” Sanji whispers as the sharpshooter and the three Baratian horses become distinct from the darkness as they approach. Zoro’s night vision is shot from the lights inside the castle, but it means that the guards will have a poor view out here too.

 

“You took your time! Franky’s just- oh there he is.” Usopp whispers back and Zoro looks over the back of Seafoam to see Franky leading Zoro’s horse and Nami’s. Johnny and Yosaku are behind him in single file with the other horses who seem to be loaded up as well. He remembers that the plan had been to pack everything and assemble the horse tack off of castle grounds and then smuggle the bare horses out and load them up away from prying eyes. 

 

“Where is Nami?” Zoro asks quietly. He feels a sudden pressure in his sinuses and the sky begins to pelt rain down at them.

 

“Guess that answers that.” Sanji mutters and pulls his hood up over his hair. 

 

“It’s a good way to get the guards to want to be inside and not out here. Visibility is awful out here now too.” Franky says with a nod and a look up at the sky. 

 

“She said she’d be up the hill a little, she showed me where. Come on.” Usopp says and leaps onto his horse. Sanji does the same and one by one they mount up and lead their horses into the woods. Zoro’s worry seems to drip off him with the rain. What’s done is done and he’s doing the right thing, whether that is finding some assassins or helping a village of people remains to be seen. He can only hope that Mihawk forgives him when he returns. 


	30. Chapter 30

Sanji is glad that Nami’s rainstorm passed quickly, he just wishes that he could talk as they ride for hour after hour. Unfortunately, a trail of horses is noticeable enough without voices to follow it and all of them are worried about the potential of this mission being a trap. For the first hour, Sanji swears he sees shadowy assassins with knives lurking behind every tree or twist in their path. It doesn’t help that none of them are carrying torches and instead are relying on their night vision to see them through; it’s all too easy to find patterns in the darkness and turn them into something terrifying. Instead, Sanji tries to track his nakama around him. Behind him is Zoro, he knows that breathing pattern by heart now, it’s lulled him to sleep every night for months. Franky is behind him; his metal nose lends a distinctive tone to his breathing. Usopp is harder to track until Sanji pins down the occasional alarmed gasp as he sees something in the dark that isn’t there or is nothing more menacing than an owl flying too close.

His little mental game keeps him occupied but eventually he grows bored. With a click of his tongue and a tug of the reigns he pulls Seafoam to the side and pulls his feet out of her stirrups and nimbly hops them up onto her saddle. He’s crouched there and when Zoro’s confused horse comes forward Sanji leaps and lands on Zoro’s horse. His hands brace him on the horn of the saddle, and he eases himself down so that he’s sitting half on the saddle and half on Zoro’s lap.

“Where the FUCK did you learn to ride a horse? The-?!” Zoro demands angrily in as quiet a tone as he can manage.

“What’s a sir-cuss?” Sanji asks, sounding out the word.

“A circus. It’s… never mind, I’ll take you to one someday. Why are you on MY horse, what’s wrong with yours?” Zoro demands to know.

“I’m offended. There’s nothing wrong with Seafoam; she’s perfect.” Sanji says huffily and clicks his tongue to remind her to follow them and not just stand there without him.

There’s a subtle gleam in the dark and Sanji realises that Zoro had his sword out, ready to attack him but halted just in time. He reaches out and carefully slides the sword back into its sheath again.

“A little jumpy are we?” Sanji asks with quiet smugness.

“Considering as you actually jumped at me I’d say I’m just jumpy enough thanks.” Zoro mutters in response. Their pair of them are still trying to keep more or less quiet for the rest of their group after all. Thankfully he’s so close to Zoro that it’s not hard to be heard just to him and no one else.

“Even so, with our reflexes and how great our group is we’d know if there was a bat farting ten miles away, let alone someone trying to sneak up on us.” Sanji points out, and Zoro smothers a laugh into the back of Sanji’s borrowed cloak. Sanji grins in the darkness; it’s always nice to make Zoro laugh but especially so when he could feel Zoro’s angst radiating off of him so strongly before. He can’t make Zoro feel any better about his choices; only he can process that. But at the least Sanji can distract him so that he’s not unduly torturing himself.

“I had some questions for you.” Sanji says softly, reaching back and scratching his fingers in Zoro’s hair. Zoro just hums inquisitively in response.

“You made me tell you all about my dream, but you didn’t really tell me about yours.” Sanji points out.

“I was more interested in yours.” Zoro answers with a shrug and Sanji resists the urge to kick him. No shit Zoro was more interested in his, didn’t it occur to him that Sanji might reciprocate the same interest? What a moron.

“Tell me everything.” Sanji orders him and apparently direct and blunt is the way to go because Zoro complies after a moment.

“I told you when I had it, right?” Zoro asks quietly and leans forward in the saddle a little so that his front curves around Sanji’s back and his chin is resting on Sanji’s shoulder.

“The night you got me to Kureha’s, right?” Sanji asks and one of Zoro’s arms snakes around Sanji’s middle and tightens for a moment. Sanji wonders if Zoro is ever going to talk about the day he almost died without this level of tension and clear self-blame.

“She said you were going to die at any moment, but you didn’t.” Zoro murmurs.

“Takes more than that to kill me.” Sanji boasts, and he feels rather than hears the choppy exhale of silent laughter.

“I fell asleep next to you; I didn’t want to go anywhere with you like that.” Zoro explains, and Sanji tries not to imagine how awful that must have been for Zoro. He didn't trust that if he left, he would still find Sanji alive.

“It was this grassy field, I guess a little like some of them near that mountain in Baratie but all grassy places look pretty similar, right? Well in the middle of it was this big… I’m not sure of the right words here.” Zoro says with an air of frustration.

“Describe what it was like and I’ll guess.” Sanji offers, though the routine is a habit now and their most common way of expanding their vocabulary these days.

“It was this long rocky crack in the land, wide and deep but full of water like a river. At least as deep as the floor in our room is from the ground outside back in the castle.” Zoro explains.

“That is deep.” Sanji agrees. It sounds like a river that’s still carving out a gorge, pretty rare and not something Sanji thinks he has ever seen in person or at least not at that depth.

“It looked beautiful, but it reminded me of the water near the Orange Union where the water looks calm but will absolutely drag you down and drown you. I really wanted to get in, but I’m also not a moron, you know?” Zoro explains, and Sanji diplomatically decides not to comment on that. He has the rest of his life to call Zoro a moron; he doesn’t need to blow that opportunity all at once.

“But then the water started dropping, and I panicked and climbed down there, but it kept running out and out. Even when I hit the bottom, there was barely any and I was trying to find what happened and undo it.” Zoro says, his voice tight. That’s a metaphor for Sanji bleeding to death if he’s ever heard one. He can see now why Zoro had started to worry afterwards that this might have just been a regular nightmare.

“What happened then?” Sanji asks quietly, leaning back a little more so that his back is pressed against Zoro’s front completely and the warmth of his body seeps through his armour and Sanji’s cloak.

“I found this rock fall that had blocked the water, and I knew I needed to get it running again or-” Zoro cuts himself off. Yeah, Sanji can see the double meaning there especially as Zoro was having this dream mere inches away from Sanji’s body which was just one failed breath shy of corpse-hood at the time.

“But you did?” Sanji prompts and Zoro makes a noise of agreement.

“Of course then I was trapped under more water than I could swim through without drowning.” he explains and Sanji snorts.

“Weak. I need to teach you how to hold your breath better underwater; I can’t have you dragging down the average score of Baratian princes underwater now can I?” Sanji teases and Zoro jabs him in the side. Sanji is pretty sure that if he’d jokingly called Zoro weak just a few months ago, it would have resulted in a real fight but now Zoro is just irritated.

“I just gave up on holding my breath and just… breathed the water in.” Zoro continues.

“You drowned in your dream?!” Sanji squawks a little too loud, but Zoro’s laugh tells Sanji that it didn’t quite play out that way.

“No, I could breathe the water just fine. And it was rough and dangerous elsewhere but wherever I was it was calm and warm, and I could see the sun through the water. There were all these fish too, ones you’d probably recognise and talk my ear off about.” the other man says and his voice is warm and fond like everything is a happy memory. It occurs to Sanji that this place is supposed to be his soul, an immutable part of who he is and for Zoro to talk about it in that tone of voice makes Sanji’s heart stutter like Nami just shocked it.

“Then you showed up but… I don’t know the name for what you are.” Zoro says with a note of quiet frustration.

“Well, you’ve got to give me something to work with here Zoro. Size, colour, kind of animal?” he says and Zoro nods.

“I think you were a fish unless they’re not classified as that. I’m not sure; I don’t know much about fish.” Zoro says unhelpfully. He does live in a landlocked country though and probably doesn’t see many live fish so Sanji figures that he can maybe forgive him for that.

“But you were big, about as long as I am tall if not longer.” he continues.

“Were there gills? Right here, for breathing.” Sanji clarifies, tapping the sides of Zoro neck. At least this way he can try to narrow down if Zoro is talking fish or aquatic mammal.

“Yeah. Gills.” Zoro agrees, trying the word out.

“It- you were really beautiful and dangerous. Full of sharp teeth and all muscle and you could have killed me, but you didn’t. You were blue and white but it wasn’t scales like a fish, it was skin that was rough one way and smooth the other.” Zoro explains.

“A shark.” Sanji whispers in wide-eyed awe. He’ll draw one for Zoro tomorrow to be sure, but he can’t think of anything else that it could be.

“Does that mean something to you?” Zoro asks curiously.

“Sharks are… I mean particular kinds of sharks have different ideas attached to them, but they’re symbols of strength and luck.” Sanji says in a hushed voice of wonder.

“I’ll be pleased to have it tattooed for life then.” Zoro remarks and Sanji is suddenly super glad for the dark because he is a hundred percent sure that his face is bright red right now.

Sanji stares forward in the dark, not seeing much but his mind is running well ahead of him. His hand rises to touch his throat, to the place where he will be tattooed with Zoro’s tiger. What he wants to know most of all is if this is fate, if there was always a part of Zoro’s soul in him or if it just happened. He doesn’t like the idea of destiny, for him to have met Zoro he had to have been stuck on that rock, his mother had to die and all so he could meet and marry Zoro. The thought of some distant force planning that out and moving Sanji around like a chess piece makes him sick. He prefers the Baratian philosophy; that life is like the ocean. It is random and cruel and hard to predict, though it can be charted and navigated with skill, things can still go wrong for no reason. But the sea also provides, it can be gentle and beautiful. Most of all there is no reasoning with the ocean and no plan behind it. That’s far less sinister.

“Sanji?” Zoro asks quietly, his voice carrying a note of concern to it. Sanji realises that he’s just stopped talking and probably tensed up too. He tries to think of something meaningful to say.

“I hope I can draw it well.” Sanji says.

“You’ll get training. Anyway, you’re good with your hands, you’ll be fine.” Zoro tells him.

Sanji’s laugh is louder than it should be and Zoro’s confused ‘what?’ just sends him into further giggles. Sanji doesn’t know whether he ever wants Zoro to get innuendo or not, on the one hand, it’s an endless well of humour, but it’s probably going to make to hard to run any kind of dirty talk with him in the future. What a terrible trade-off he is burdened with.

“Why are you laughing at me?” Zoro growls as Sanji’s eyes fill with mirthful tears.

“Don’t worry Zoro; it’s fine.” Sanji chuckles, leaning back against Zoro once more and reaching back to pat him gently on the cheek.

They don’t talk much after that; they’re trying to keep quiet in case anyone is tracking them. It’s not as if they can even play a game like ‘I spy’ in the near total darkness, a game which interestingly enough both of their cultures share completely identically. Wondering if at some point bored travellers from their respective countries shared it or if it’s such a simplistic idea for a game that everyone has thought of it keeps Sanji’s mind occupied for a good ten minutes. After that though it’s just boredom. It’s late, and Sanji is tired, and the horse is warm, and Zoro’s front against Sanji’s back is warmer still. Zoro’s arms are around him to hold the reigns and at some point Sanji falls asleep.

Early morning light is what wakes Sanji up, the same time he wakes up every morning. The feel of Zoro’s warm body against his own is nothing new now when he wakes, but being upright is a strange turn of events.

“Awake, curly?” Zoro asks quietly. Sanji just nods instead of replying and peers around to see the rest of their group and Sanji’s horse trotting happily beside them. The forest is thinner now, so there’s enough room for them to ride two by two.

“Why’d you let me fall asleep?” Sanji asks quietly.

“It’s not like I needed you to steer my horse. And you’ve rested so when we stop to sleep you’ll be awake enough to make our food.” Zoro answers, running his thumb lazily over Sanji’s ribs.

“Speaking of,” Nami interrupts them from her horse, “I’m dead tired. The woods are thinning up ahead so let’s set up camp and Sanji can cook while we sleep.”

The rest of their group grumbles in appreciation, and it’s not long before their group is stringing up hastily assembled tents and crawling into them. Or rather it’s just the one tent; the second Franky tried to construct and failed, leaving it in a sad heap on the ground. As it is everyone is sleeping in one tent all together and far too tired to care.

Sanji sets about unloading the horses, including Zoro’s exhausted one and Sanji’s smug and energetic horse who did barely any work all night. He feeds and waters them then gets a fire going. They have more than enough food to cook a decent breakfast and though Sanji doesn’t want to dip into their supplies more than he has to he will for their first meal. If they can, he wants to kill, catch and forage as much food as he can on the way to save more food for the starving people of Luffy’s village.

Even though he’s making breakfast, it’s also sort of dinner for their group too, and being awake all night and being awake almost all of today will require some serious energy. Porridge, spicy meat and fruit kebabs might make for a strange meal, but he’s sure no one will complain.

He sets everything to cook slowly and paws through all of their bags. Not for any untoward purposes (he is a married man after all!), but rather his aim is to check to see just what it is in the village that is causing the people to starve and what he has available to him to test it. He’s assuming that Zoro’s people aren’t morons who have just forgotten to grow enough food for everyone after all their ancestors were good enough at it that they’re alive now. It’s most likely to be an environmental problem on the part of the crops or a health issue on the part of the people. There are plenty of illnesses that can cause a man to die even if he eats to excess. A man can eat biscuits and meat until he’s fat and still dies of scurvy.

Chopper can handle the human health stuff when he arrives, Sanji and his fellow Baratians are tasked with the agriculture side. He’s running on limited resources, though, their finer equipment had to be left behind for them to be able to escape and Sanji has only the basics. Further to that, he’s no scientist. He’s educated, yes, and Franky is a genius and Usopp knows his chemicals, but none of them are full Baratian agricultural engineers. Part of Sanji’s job was to take stock of what was wrong in Shimotsuki as a whole and report back when he returned so that Baratie could then offer the best aid, not to rush out and offer what help he could immediately. Not that any Baratian would scold him for it, it’s just not ideal.

He wants to be there now, trying to help people but he can’t. It’s almost two weeks away if he remembers rightly from Nami’s earlier explanations. Sure their way might go faster with Nami leading them and their lighter horses instead of a cart, but even so, he won’t be there tomorrow.

Who knows how many people could die of starvation in that village before they get there? Sanji feels a twinge of emptiness inside his stomach, and he reflexively chugs some water and eats a little of the food. Just to test it of course, not to comfort himself or anything stupid like that.

He’s tired and though he’s the only one who slept it was hardly restful. He should be glad that he didn’t have any nightmares, especially with the thought of people starving in his head for most of the day. Right now, though, he just feels uneasy, almost queasy. It seems like something bad is going to happen and two patrols around their little camped out area does nothing to calm the feeling of wrongness inside of him.

He sits down and opens up his bag once more, pulling his journal, pen and ink from it. He starts to write, describing everything from the beginning but his heart still feels lost. He wants to help these people, nothing can stop him, but he’s not sure how he’ll deal with actually seeing starving people. It was awful enough seeing the man who came to beg them for help and most of his body was covered, plus they likely would have sent the fittest person on the journey to the castle. He’s seen sick people in his country, helped people in emergencies, but none of them were starving.

Sanji closes his eyes and shuts his book, but all he can see behind his lids is a vision of his ankles, so thin that he could see each little bone and tendon. He remembers the convex void in his abdomen and how all of his ribs were visible all of the time.

His throat feels thick, and it’s hard to swallow. He needs to calm down. What would Zoro do? What would his nakama tell him? He doesn’t want to wake them up for his stupidity, not when they’re so tired. His mind flicks to Zoro’s regular evening meditation, and he remembers how Zoro can go into it stressed and upset and come out calm and relaxed.

How does he do it? Sanji settles himself on the clean, dry grass with his legs crossed like Zoro does, he shuffles his hands from his knees to his lap and back again a few times until he finds something comfortable. He remembers that Zoro’s breathing always goes super slow when he’s like this, so he tries to hold his breath but for some reason, that doesn’t calm the spiralling and rapidly growing panic that is forming in his chest.

When a large hand falls on his shoulder, Sanji only just stops himself from screaming out loud by clapping a hand over his mouth. Franky is looking down at him, a little worried about startling him so much.

“You didn’t scare me.” Sanji says defensively.

“Sure thing.” Franky agrees with a chuckle and sits down next to him.

“You should be getting some rest.” Sanji points out, keeping his voice quiet so as not to wake the others. Sanji’s large nakama shrugs his massive shoulders and combs a hand through his blue hair.

“I’m not good at sleeping in the day. I was just managing to doze slightly was all, so I thought I’d get up.” Franky responds naturally.

Sanji looks back to see the crammed tent full of snoring people. Clearly, not everyone has a problem with sleeping during the day.

“I can’t believe I fell asleep on a horse.” Sanji says after a few moments. He honestly feels a little bit guilty about it, both for Zoro’s poor horse having to carry two people but also for Zoro. Sure Zoro might wish to grind up that close to Sanji but having Sanji sharing his saddle and sleeping on him was likely not what he had in mind. Sanji is trying hard to avoid the idea of how awful it would feel to get pins and needles anywhere near there.

“You don’t look too rested though bro.” Franky says and drinks from his canteen of water.

“Thanks for that.” Sanji snaps and shoves him in the side.

“Yeah, yeah, you look real tired under the eyes here. Like the walking dead!” Franky laughs and then makes a theatrical groaning monster noise.

Zoro and Nami rudely interrupt Sanji’s perfectly justified attempt at kicking Franky’s ribcage in by getting out of their tent and slapping him around the back of the head. Or at least Nami is the one who slaps him, Zoro just looks sleepy and grumpy.

“Would you believe me if I said he deserved it?” Sanji asks hopefully, his foot still pressing into Franky’s large ribs.

“I’d believe you but still be pissed that you woke me up.” Nami says bluntly and sits down on a fallen tree trunk and rubs sleepily at her large beautiful eyes.

“Feed me some of that, and I’ll forgive you.” Zoro adds and settles next to her.

“Psh, you act like you’re Luffy.” Sanji snorts and removes his foot from Franky’s ribs and dutifully goes to fetch the crockery and cutlery anyway.

“If I were Luffy, I’d have just shoved my face in that pot, but since he’s not here, no one else has to panic.” Zoro says with a deep, jaw cracking yawn.

“It feels strange making this journey without him.” Nami says softly.

“Why?” Franky asks, surprisingly in Tsukian. His pronunciation is good too, damn him.

“Did you understand that?” Sanji asks in surprise.

“Kind of. You were all talking about Luffy, and then Nami said about the trip without Luffy, and she looks a little sad, so I asked why.” Franky explains with a shrug.

“You smartass.” Sanji says in amazement and absentmindedly hands Zoro’s bowl to him, who’s busy explaining the conversation to Nami.

“I’m enjoying learning it.” Franky says modestly and shrugs like it’s no big deal.

Nami seems to realise that it’s her turn to talk and she sits and stirs a spoon through her food a few times before speaking.

“Because I’ve never been there without Luffy. Because… Luffy’s my captain as well as my nakama and going without him feels… weird.” Nami answers slowly, though Sanji isn’t sure if it’s because she’s having trouble putting her feelings into words of if she’s trying to make Franky’s job of understanding her easier.

Franky checks quickly but the ridiculous genius actually got that whole thing right first time, damn him.

“You’re unfairly good at this.” Zoro complains, and Franky just laughs.

“Yeah, but we picked it up pretty quick when you think about it. Plus, he clearly has the same motive for learning that I did.” Sanji says slyly; he says that last part in Baratian just for Franky’s benefit and he gets to watch as his blue haired buddy turns red across his cheeks.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Franky mutters, sitting up a little straighter and shoving food in his mouth.

“Liar.” Zoro says flatly.

“Yeah, you like Robin. I see how you look at her, and you bring her tea that you made just for her.” Sanji says teasingly, and the tips of Franky’s ears go pink as well.

Zoro finishes quietly translating for Nami and her eyes widen in alarm.

“I didn’t notice! I thought that he was just being nice, you Baratians are so weird and strangely flirty with everyone that I just thought… Zoro, do you think this is smart?” Nami asks worriedly, looking sidelong at Zoro.

“Both of them are older than me, and Robin hardly needs protecting from anyone.” Zoro says with a snort.

“I wasn’t worried about Robin.” Nami sighs.

“What are you talking about?” Franky asks warily, looking considerably uneasy.

“It’s just that Robin has a reputation is all.” Nami answers uneasily.

“What kind of a reputation?” Sanji asks after translating for Franky.

Sanji wonders if perhaps Robin has had many partners before, it wouldn’t surprise him. She’s so gorgeous and mysterious she could likely have anyone that she wanted. Plus, she lives in a culture where there’s no pressure to wait for the person that you marry so why shouldn’t she?

"People don't tend to flirt with her anymore; they're all too scared of her." Nami explains.

"What? Robin's a lovely lady, why would anyone be scared of her? She'd never hurt any person who didn't deserve it." Sanji says, offended on Robin's behalf.

"Yeah," Zoro says with a shrug, "but real relationships are supposed to be equal, and some weakling thinking that they're as good as Robin is an insult."

Zoro looks somewhat repulsed at the idea, and Sanji suddenly remembers that the first time Zoro showed any real interest in him was after they sparred for the first time. There may be something in that theory after all.

"So she just judges people, and if she thinks they're wimps she maims them or something?" Sanji asks sceptically.

"Only a little, unless they've been incredibly rude about it. Then it's more. People just don't try anymore, not if they know who she is." Nami says with a sigh.

"Okay but... Franky's strong. She's seen him in a fight; she knows him." Sanji insists. Nami's eyes go wide and Zoro snorts in amusement.

"Tone, Sanji, tone." Zoro says in a mocking repeat of Sanji's oft-repeated words.

"Fucking damnit. You get my point, though. Franky's a good guy, and surely Robin won't stab him just for trying to show that he's interested." Sanji says irritably.

"I'm not saying that he shouldn't try, we're just warning him about what might happen." Zoro says.

Sanji purses his lips and looks at his friend, no, nakama. He's apparently been at least partially following the conversation.

"Don't worry, man. I'll help you win her over." Sanji assures Franky in Tsukian and the clever bastard understands too. He seems to be the only person who does, because both Nami and Zoro almost choke on their respective drinks in apparent shock.

"You'll do WHAT?!" Zoro demands.

"I'll... help him? With Robin. I'll help him figure out what to say to win her heart and... why are you both staring at me like that?" Sanji asks, looking from wide-eyed Zoro to wide-eyed Nami in confusion.

"But you're married, and you know Zoro!" Nami says in a strangled tone of voice.

"I... think we're losing something in translation here. Hold on a second." Sanji says and scrambles up from the ground and creeps silently towards the tent. Behind him, he can hear Zoro quietly translating what Sanji said and Nami muttering something.

Luckily for Sanji, it seems that Usopp was sleeping right by the door and Johnny and Yosaku spooning furthest away. He pokes Usopp in the forehead and holds his finger up to shush the man so that he doesn't wake the others up. He gestures for Usopp to silently follow him and leads him out of the tent and over to where the rest of their group are.

"Why did you wake me up?" Usopp whines, rubbing one eye with the back of his hand.

"I think we've lost something in translation or I'm hitting some cultural thing, can you help?" Sanji asks and sits down again with Usopp grudgingly following him.

"Yeah, I tried to explain it in Baratian and Zoro still looks like I said something super offensive." Franky says.

"I'm sure Sanji doesn't mean what he just said." Zoro says firmly; he looks highly unimpressed.

"Fine, tell me what you idiots managed to say wrong in the time I was getting my precious few hours of sleep." Usopp says with a groan.

Sanji explains Franky's undeniable attraction which wasn't news to Usopp either. He describes Robin's apparent track record with, possibly literally, shooting down suitors. Finally, he explains his perfectly normal offer to help Franky woo Robin.

Usopp's expression remains unchanged for a moment or two until something seems to click in his head and his expression becomes the same startled look that Zoro and Nami got.

"Right, that's... not a language problem. That's a culture problem." Usopp says slowly.

"So tell me what went wrong then." Sanji says.

"Okay so... polyamorous relationships are accepted in Shimotsuki, but it's usually the kind of thing that happens before a person meets their the person that they know. You sometimes get poly relationships where two people in it know each other, but it's pretty rare. I've heard of occasions where three people all know each other, but that's been in stories so it might be fictional." Usopp explains.

"I don't see how this is relevant to anything, even if it is interesting." Sanji says, feeling somewhat annoyed.

"It is relevant dumbass. Romantic advice for Tsukians isn't like how it is for Baratians. It'd be perfectly normal for Robin to help you out by saying 'hey don't try to surprise Zoro with that, he's allergic or it reminds him of something awful'. Helping you avoid a bad situation is fine, as is helping you work out if someone is into you or not." Usopp explains.

“But helping someone plan how to flirt with someone else or get them to fall in love is something you would only do if you want to be involved in that relationship too. To them, it looks like you just set up a plan to get involved with Robin and Franky in front of Zoro.” Usopp says.

“Oh.” Sanji says with wide eyes. He definitely hadn’t meant that.

Franky lays a large hand on Sanji’s shoulder, and he looks up at the other man in surprise.

“Hey man, I like you too but…” Franky says, his mock seriousness betrayed by the grin pulling at his lips.

“Fuck OFF!” Sanji snarls and shoves the laughing man over in the dirt.

Usopp sighs and looks at Nami and Zoro who are watching Sanji and Franky squabble with a combination of bewilderment and amusement.

“I think you two have to understand something too, though.” Usopp says, switching to Tsukian as he looks at them.

“When you’re friends with someone in Baratie it’s understood that you help them with things, and helping them and expecting nothing in return is a virtue. You help your friends because you love them and that includes helping them with their romantic problems, so they find love. Helping your friend say or do the right thing or going over how their attempts are progressing is perfectly normal and healthy.” Usopp explains, and Sanji pauses in his attempt to shove Franky’s face in the grass because Nami and Zoro’s expressions are so interesting. They look disconcerted.

“Do you mean your definition of friends or ours?” Nami asks with a frown.

“It doesn’t make a difference to Baratians, but if it makes it easier think like… nakama, people you’re as close to as Ace, close family. That level of closeness to someone.” Usopp explains.

“But… doesn’t that feel wrong? Like they’re flirting with someone else for you but not getting anything?” Nami asks, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“It doesn’t.” Sanji assures her.

“You still can’t help Franky out, if Robin finds out it’ll go badly. Even if the cultural stuff doesn’t creep her out like it’s creeping us out, she’ll think that Franky isn’t strong enough to win her attention on his own.” Zoro says, looking equally uncomfortable.

“And then he’ll get stabbed. Or maybe both of you will.” Nami adds.

“Did she just say something about being stabbed?” Franky asks with wide eyes.

“Yeah, apparently Robin is going to be unreasonable.” Sanji says with a snort and both Nami and Zoro shake their heads.

"Trust me on this; he needs to do it alone. If you want him to succeed, then you'll leave him alone." Zoro warns.

"Fine." Sanji sighs, even if he's not entirely convinced.

  
It takes just under two weeks for them to ride from the castle to Foosha Village. It would be noble to say that he was worried the entire time that they rode there for the fate of the poor people in that village. However, worry is a very hard thing to hold up and though in the back of his mind it was often thought about it couldn't consume him for the whole time. There are probably peasants in every village who would give their left testicle to lead a life as interesting as Sanji's, but there's only so many days that he can spend on a horse going by dull scenery that he can take before wishing for ANYTHING ELSE to happen.

A few days away from Foosha Village Sanji wishes that he had boredom again because anything is better than this.

Sanji is sitting frozen on the road, a boundary between two fields at his side. On one side is a field of somewhat scraggly crops, a below average harvest for sure but passable. On the other side, however, are the rotten bodies of corn stalks, flopped over on the ground. They barely look like they grew any height at all before giving up the ghost.

"What kills something in one field and not the other?" Zoro asks in a shocked voice as he looks from one field to the other.

"They're different crops, for one thing, that's wheat, and that's corn I think? It's so dead it's hard to say." Usopp answers and Sanji dismounts from his horse.

He walks up to the hedge dividing the two fields which separates and then keeps them away from the dirt path. It's no trouble at all to jump the hedge and right away he's in the dead field.

"Careful Sanji, if there's spores or something from what killed that stuff then you don't want to be inhaling that." Franky calls after him, but Sanji just waves him off.

The dirt under his feet is tilled in a slightly different way from how they do it back home, but it's good enough, the earth under his feet seems soft enough and doesn't look like the wrong soil type. He kneels down and looks at one of the failed crops. The stalk of the corn plant is floppy and apparently couldn't support its own weight when it died. There's no evidence that it even came close to bearing corn which by this time in the year it surely ought to have done, even in Shimotsuki's hotter climate. The leaves are way smaller than they should be, this plant clearly wasn't healthy at any point in its life.

He stands up and looks around. Some of the plants are less rotted than the others, which suggests that they didn't all die at the same time. Whatever this thing is it's systemic.

He hears a thump as Usopp makes it over the hedge with a lot less grace and as Sanji turns to look at the hedge, he sees that the side of it that looks into the field is a wilting brown. On the other side of the hedge, it seemed perfectly fine. This is definitely something unique to this area.

Usopp puts a pair of gloves on and crouches down, scooping up a palmful of the dirt.

"It's well watered. Loamy, it looks like good soil." Usopp says slowly.

"Nami," Sanji calls to her, "can you tell me if it's rained here recently? Is that something your magic can do? I know it didn't rain last night, but before that, we might have been too far away."

Nami tilts her head back and looks at the sky with a frown. A few long moments pass before she looks back at them.

"Three or four days, it's hard to tell more precisely than that." Nami replies.

"This... should be drier then." Usopp says.

"Which means someone likely watered it. Hope is a powerful thing when you're hungry." Sanji mutters unhappily.

"I kind of want to lick it to see if it's too acidic or alkaline but... I also kind of don't want to lick it." Usopp says with a frown.

"Don't lick it." Sanji scolds him.

"Hey, Zoro! Make sure he doesn't lick that. I'm gonna go walk to the high point of the field and see if I can see any further." Sanji shouts and Zoro nods.

"Try not to get killed." Zoro says with a slight grin tugging at his mouth.

"Oh, we're allowed to joke about that now are we?" he asks with a grin.

"No, just me. And if you get killed I will personally hunt down a necromancer to revive you and then punch you in the face for doing that to me." Zoro answers a little sharply.

"I'll try to control myself then." Sanji snorts and turns to walk off.

The field has a slight hill in the middle which is obscuring his view, and perhaps from there Sanji can get a better look at the rest of the landscape. He trudges up the ploughed dirt furrows with a frown on his face. The next field doesn't look great, but for something to have killed everything in this plot so completely it should have done the same to the next one too. It's not even like whatever killed the corn was some fungus or parasite specific to corn because there aren't any weeds in this field at all and the hedge was scorched. Whatever killed this crop killed everything indiscriminately.

He crests the brow of the hill and stops still. For a start the entire plot of land is dead, the one to its left is unhealthy for sure, but all of the other surrounding fields are just as dead. As far as his eye can see each single agricultural plot is dead and gone. Acres of nothing at all punctuated with farmhouses no doubt filled with starving families.

Sanji swallows thickly. This is bad; this is really fucking bad.

"I think you all need to see this." Sanji calls out weakly and bit by bit the group joins him.

"What could do this?" Zoro asks, his hands clenched into tight fists at his side.

"I've never seen anything like it." Usopp says.

"I'm not even sure how you could kill this much plant life without burning everything down with fire." Franky says with a shake of his head.

"I don't understand, though. The trees aren't dead, the woodlands aren't dead, the grass by the side of the road isn't dead, but as soon as you get into farmland, it's all gone. What could be that specific?" Sanji asks in bewilderment.

"Magic." Nami whispers.

"I don't know how to fight that." Sanji says, looking at the potentially cursed ground.

"We'll find something, come on. We need to get to Foosha and fast. These people need a miracle, and we're all they have, we can think about what to do on the way there." Zoro snaps and marches angrily back to his horse.

"We need answers; Usopp have you got any empty glass vials? The kind you keep some of your materials in?" Sanji asks, turning to his nakama.

Usopp purses his lips and has a rummage around inside his bag as the others go back to the horses. Usopp produces two which appear to be filled with gunpowder. Although considering that Usopp uncorks them, pours the substance into his hand and then shoves it in his pocket Sanji sure hopes it's NOT gunpowder.

"Tell me that you didn't just put gunpowder in your pocket." Sanji says as he rinses the little glass vials out.

"Sure thing. I didn't put gunpowder in my pocket." Usopp answers brightly, blatantly lying.

"Liar, liar, pants soon to be on fire and possibly exploding." Sanji laughs as he scoops up some of the dirt in one and Usopp helpfully writes something on the cork of one. He hands it to Sanji, and the prince finds himself staring in bewilderment at the squiggle that Usopp made.

"Hey, say what you will about Tsukian, it's a compact written language. Also, I need to teach you to read." Usopp says with a shrug.

"No, it's fine. I'm sure that won't ever be important to know how to do. Say, unrelated topic but what do you think my chances are at getting these people to write in Baratian like civilised people?" Sanji asks as he hops the fence to the sick but still alive field. He takes another soil sample as Usopp makes exaggerated thoughtful noises.

"I would say... you're more likely to get stabbed just for asking." Usopp tells him as he climbs the hedge again back to Usopp's side.

"Thought as much. Hey, I need a third one for the healthy soil out there." Sanji tells Usopp and leads the way back to the horses.

"Definitely not putting more gunpowder in my pocket." Usopp mutters as he follows him. They climb back over the first hedge to their horses and Sanji climbs the little ridge of grass by the road and then kicks a hunk of dirt out of the top. He scoops the dirt from that bit into the last gunpowder-free vial. Usopp corks that one with another indecipherable symbol and Sanji climbs onto his horse as Usopp replaces the vials in his bag.

"Why are you stealing dirt?" Zoro asks as they start to move again.

"Hey, I'm a prince of this country now aren't I? I could make a good argument for it being my dirt to begin with." Sanji protests.

"The actual answer is that Sanji has dirt from the sick field, the dead one and healthy ground out here. If he plants something quick growing in them, we can see what happens. If the healthy dirt gives a healthy plant, the sick dirt a sick one and the dead dirt and dead one then we know it's the dirt. If it's anything else then we know the problem is something different, we know it can't be plant type, so it's either something added to the soil or... I guess a curse from a witch?" Franky says, hesitating at that last part.

"Could a witch do this Nami?" Usopp asks.

"I could do this if I chose to. I could make it rain too much or not at all, but I'd have to stick around to do it. But that's just for my magic. If a witch had some kind of... death based magic or luck magic or something I don't even know of, it could be something entirely different. Magic is just going to be the answer when we don't have any other answer." Nami tells them.

"Is there any way you could find out about a witch who could do this?" Sanji asks warily. Witch stuff is still pretty creepy to him, and all he knows is that pissing them off is bad.

Nami sighs and shakes her head slowly.

"It's not like there's a big magical community and even if there were I'm not connected, I'm self-taught and foreign. I can't even always recognise another witch when I see one; Kalifa should prove that." Nami says.   
  
"That wasn't your fault Nami." Sanji assures her as he draws closer to them.

"If I had seen-" She begins angrily but cuts herself off, seemingly understanding that this argument will not bring anything productive for anyone.

"I found something to grow." Usopp calls, having climbed partway up the grassy hill. The sharpshooter waves a dandelion head, dislodging a few flighty seeds as he does so.

"Isn't that a- I... don't know the word for it. A plant that grows somewhere you don't want it?" Zoro asks, apparently displeased at his vocabulary failing him.

"A weed, yes. It's a real nuisance if you're trying to grow something else nearby, but it grows fast and hard. If anything can grow in bad soil it's that, and if something can kill it then we have a real problem." Sanji tells him.

Usopp stuffs the seeds into the vials and smushes them down a little; he starts to rig up a strap on his bag to hold them in so that they can get a little sunlight as they go. That'll encourage the seeds to sprout.

"I didn't see anything like that growing in there, though." Zoro says warily.

Sanji turns again to look at the field of death. Nothing is living in there, nothing at all.

"That's what I'm afraid of." He says quietly.

"And if all the seeds grow just fine?" Nami asks.

"Then... then it's either a problem with the water or the seeds or... something else. Magic maybe. I want to check for the problems that I can fix first." He explains.

He climbs onto his horse, and when Usopp finishes he does the same. None of them are keen to stick around here.

They continue to ride, but each field they pass is dead as well. It comes to be that if Sanji faces away from the woods he can see nothing living as far as the eye can see, even the hedges separating fields have died. The first night Sanji can sleep okay, he spends the time before bed thinking of solutions to this problem, and their tent is settled on living grass and moss within the woods.

The second day they have to peel away from the woods, and towards the village proper, they had to stop for a long time to gather up enough healthy grass for their horses before they went. Sanji won't have the poor animals eating something that may well be somehow poisoned. That night, sleeping in his tent surrounded by dead and rotting plants he has a nightmare. It is thankfully not the nightmare of the rock but rather his body is starting to rot before his very eyes, fungus bubbling out of his skin and- He is able to control his dream enough to snap out of it.

He doesn't sleep the rest of the night. He just packs things away, brushes the horses and tries not to listen to the silence around them. He can hear no crickets chirping, no scuffling of mice, not even any grass swaying in the wind because it's all dead. Disconcerting is an understatement.

The final day approaching the village is the worst. Every plant is dead, and they have to climb over a fallen tree which has suddenly died. It would have taken a long time if it wasn't for the fact that Franky is big enough to hoist the smaller horses over the giant fallen thing. His and Usopp's horse look reluctant but unsurprised, though Zoro's horse doesn't like it Nami's horse is the most unhappy with being carried. Franky's own giant warhorse can jump the giant tree on its own and looks very smug about it too.

They draw close to Foosha, and it too is soundless. The village is clearly old, stone buildings and clay tiled roofs, it'd look charming if not for it's utter desertion in the middle of the day.

"Where is everyone?" Nami wonders quietly.

"Starving people don't usually want to walk around a lot. Come on, let's go in." Sanji urges and moves to the front of their party.

Seafoam's shod hooves ring brightly on the cobbled paving, the noise bouncing off of the walls of the buildings. She's joined by the other horses and soon they kick up enough noise that there's no way anyone wouldn't know they were here.

"What if they're all dead?" Usopp breathes fearfully.

"The windows are open; you'd smell it if they were." Zoro assures him. Sanji doesn't point out that his argument only works for people who have been dead a good deal of time. If everyone had dropped dead today that wouldn’t hold, he won’t point that out, though.

"What if they're zombies, though?" Usopp whimpers.

Zoro is halfway through asking just what that is when a door opens, it even creaks ominously. A man lumbers out clumsily. He is tall and painfully thin, Sanji could probably wrap his whole hand around one of the man's upper arms. Though his skin is dark like Zoro and Robin's it is pale, not in the way that Usopp is lighter thanks to his Baratian mother, but pale in the sense of weak and wasted away. Sanji's soul hurts to see him.

Sanji leaps from his horse and lands silently. He quickly crosses the distance to the man on sure feet and reaches out to him; a woman is following him perhaps a sister or a wife.

"We're here to help." Sanji says as clearly as he can.

"Who are..." The man trails off as he looks over Sanji's shoulder. He hears Zoro dismount and walk over to them, the chiming of his earrings giving him away.

"The prince." The man breathes in awe.

Around them, doors are opening, and people are venturing out, all sick and starving. They are looking at the group with hope in their eyes. Zoro seems to realise that people are watching him, though Sanji thinks that they haven't realised who the Baratians with him must be for no one is staring at them.

"We've come to help you." Zoro says, his voice loud and clear. Princely in fact.

"There is a proper supply cart arriving in a few days with food and medicine and the like. We're here to help as must as we can before that, to find out why this has happened and reverse it if we can." Zoro adds.

A few of the onlookers weep with relief and joy, Sanji remembers doing the same when he was rescued from that rock. Others crowd around the prince and his knights, trying to help and asking questions. Others eye Sanji and the other Baratians warily as if they could somehow be a trap, or maybe they just see more mouths to feed.

"Somewhere to stay would be great." Sanji hears Zoro say, it's hard to pick words out of the buzz of talking. He's still not good at that when it's in Tsukian; he wonders how long it'll take him to learn that skill.

A man in important looking clothes leads them along the streets to an inn. It's clearly not being used at the moment. Sanji doesn't think many people pass by this place and think it's a lovely place to stay these days. The important looking man talks to the innkeeper as their group removes the bags from their horses and sets them into the stable. Sanji got Seafoam in the closest spot to the door, so he's able to catch the conversation through the half open stable door.

"I can't feed that many people! I can hardly feed my own family. You can't ask me to do this." The innkeeper woman pleads.

"He's the prince, and the royal family is sending aid and food. You would turn that down and risk stranding us with no help?" The important man snaps at her.

Sanji shoulders open the door to the stable and walks out towards the pair.

"We have a decent amount of food of our own. We've been careful with it, so we shouldn't deplete your stores. All the same, I'm very sorry to put you in this position." Sanji says, giving a small bow of apology.

"Who... are you?" The woman asks warily, looking him up and down. The important looking man jolts and smacks her on the arm.

"The prince married, remember?! He's the prince of Baratie." The man scolds her and Sanji narrows his eyes. He doesn't like the way he's talking to her one bit.

"I'm Prince of Baratie and Shimotsuki actually. My name is Sanji I didn't hear who you were though." Sanji says pointedly to the man.

"Oh! My... my apologies your highness. I am deputy mayor Gyoru, since Mayor Woop Slap rode out to the castle I've been acting for him here." The man says.

"I'm assuming a village this size it doesn't usually require a deputy mayor. What do you usually do?" Sanji asks and the woman's mouth curls up in a smile.

"He's a fisherman. Not much fishing going on lately, the river's as dead as the fields." The woman says and Sanji perks up with interest.

"So it's in the water too. That's helpful. Mr Deputy Mayor, could you find me some farmers, a doctor, anyone who raises livestock and anyone who goes out of the area to hunt? We're going to set our things up inside and then get to work on how to fix this. Does that sound good?" Sanji suggests.

The deputy mayor nods sharply and rushes off to do as he's told. The innkeeper woman chuckles and heads into the inn, calling over her shoulder that she'll get rooms ready for them. As soon as she's out of sight Sanji can hear a quiet but deep laugh coming from nearby. He knows just who it is, though, he's heard it plenty of times. Sanji pulls the stable door back entirely and sees Zoro right there with several of the others nearby.

"For someone who seems so approachable, you sure are good at ordering people around, Sanji." Nami says in amusement.

"Real good at it." Zoro agrees with a smile that borders on filthy. The back of Sanji's brain helpfully reminds him that they never did get around to properly cataloging what specific things get each other hot and gee was that one by any chance?

"He was a jerk. Besides, I need those people to work out what happened when." Sanji mutters and hefts his bag over his shoulder. He walks into the inn, and the lovely innkeeper directs him to a room upstairs.

It turns out that the innkeeper has a lot of rooms free, unsurprisingly. So much so that the only people who end up sharing a room are himself and Zoro and also Johnny and Yosaku. Once again Sanji finds himself wondering just what their relationship is but, yet again, he lets it go.

Their room is modest, but Sanji would expect as much from an inn in a small village. It has a double bed, a fireplace and a slightly uneven chest of drawers. Sanji wonders who in the household is the inexperienced carpenter. They set their things out and unpack with ease, by the time Sanji is an old man he's sure that he'll be an expert at this travelling business. He has a small moment of happy surprise when he remembers that when he's an old man Zoro will be an old man with him. He's married to Zoro, and their souls are apparently wrapped up in each other, yet small things still come as a surprise to him. He hadn't been thinking of that far in his future, and he's pleased with the idea of Zoro still being there.

"So, the people that you asked to come here." Zoro says in Baratian as he upends his bag into a drawer and knees it shut without even sorting the contents. Such a savage.

"Hm?" Sanji responds, pulling himself entirely out of the embarrassingly fluffy thoughts that he had been having.

"You need them to work out what happened here?" Zoro asks.

"Yeah, if I can work out an order that this happened in it'll tell me what started it. The more information we have the better." Sanji explains and stretches out a few kinks in his back from riding the whole morning.

"So what will you do when you find out?" Zoro presses him.

"Well, that depends on what we decide it is. We probably won't work it out today. There's still more of the area that I want to see, but we can start narrowing it down. I don't think it's an insect for example, which I had thought it might be before I saw the fields." Sanji explains.

"Can you fix it, though?" the other man asks, and Sanji can see that he looks desperate.

Sanji shifts uneasily on his feet and then sits down on his bed with a sigh.

"I had hoped that only half or two-thirds of the plants would be either inedible or dead. I had thought we might be fixing the problem and nurturing what survived, then sending supplies to fill the gaps until their own food started growing next year. But..." Sanji shakes his head.

"But?" Zoro asks quietly.

"There's nothing to save Zoro, not unless everything on the other side of the village is fine. My hope is that I can fix what caused this so that they can grow food next year. I'd be stunned if they could plant anything in that soil at this time of year and get anything from it. This place is barren and sick, all I can do is ensure that it's temporary." Sanji tells him regretfully.

"So the people living here have to leave and go elsewhere." Zoro says, clearly disappointed.

"Well, that or they get enough food sent to them to tide them over. Depending on what needs to be done we may need them here to get the fields ready." Sanji offers. He knows that no one wants to leave their homes and it's certainly not a popular move for royalty to displace its own subjects. Sanji can certainly see why Zoro would be unhappy with this.

"That's going to cost a lot of money and people won't like it." Zoro says with a grimace.

Sanji resists the temptation to kick Zoro in the face for suggesting that money was worth more than people. Instead, he bites his tongue for a second and considers that Zoro may well be considering how hard it'll be to sell this idea to Mihawk or the rest of the influential people responsible for keeping the country running.

"Let me ask you a question, are some people in this village related to people in nearby villages and towns? Some may have family that have gone to cities and such?" Sanji asks.

"Well, yeah. People move around, I mean Luffy's from around here." Zoro agrees.

"You wanna know what's more expensive than feeding a village until spring? A civil war. Suppose Luffy heard that almost everyone in his hometown died a terrible death and though they asked for help the people in charge did nothing to stop it. How happy do you think he'd be? And there would be other people like Luffy who left here and then heard that, then they talk to other individuals who are unhappy for any other reason." Sanji says, and Zoro goes pale.

"You'd get war. The country could collapse." Zoro says in horror.

"Your people are weird Zoro, the reason most countries go to war with other countries or with themselves is shit like this. Disease, famine, drought. They do it to secure more supplies or to pass the blame onto outsiders. They might say it's other reasons, but it's always that, except for you lot and your strange warrior tendencies." Sanji says, falling back on the bed with a sigh.

"I've seen what thousands of angry Tsukian warriors can do; I don't want them against me." Zoro says unhappily.

"Me neither." Sanji agrees and looks up at the plastered ceiling.

There's a thought irritating the back of his mind, like an idea that he's not grasped yet. Something about that first field but he's not sure what. What was strange about it? Well... everything. Okay, so he can list it.

Everything in that field was dead, even the weeds. There were no bugs or birds around in those fields and usually decomposing plants bring bugs and bugs bring birds. The field next to it was fine, as were all the fields before that and yet all of the ones after the first wilted field were just as dead.

Ugh, all of that was weird.

"Something is wrong here." Sanji says as he sits up.

"Well, yeah. Nothing about this is right." Zoro agrees morosely.

"True, but I didn't mean that. I've seen failed harvests before, but this is worse than anything I've ever seen. I've never even heard of anything this bad without drastic change in the local environment, like a river drying up." Sanji explains and Zoro frowns.

"You're thinking witchcraft as well then?" the other man asks.

"Maybe, I don't know. But something is weird. Come on; we have a mystery to solve." Sanji says and leaps to his feet to go downstairs.

It would have been far more dramatic if he had come downstairs to find everyone waiting for his brilliant mind but as it was there was just one man in a faded doctor's coat drinking tea. Within ten minutes though everyone was sat around the long table in the inn with the innkeeper and her family watching them all.

Zoro stands up at the head of the table and opens his mouth to speak. Before he can, the table bursts forth into questions. Sanji can't catch every question, but they're along the lines of wanting to know when aid was arriving, what Mihawk's plans were, who the pale people around the table were.

"It's stupid, to Tsukians I always look Baratian and to Baratians I always look Tsukian." Usopp grumbles unhappily.

"You're both, I think that's pretty cool." Sanji offers him reassuringly. Usopp doesn't seem convinced, but he never does. Sanji had hoped that he would fit in more in Shimotsuki, he always claimed he felt foreign in Baratie. There is the troubling possibility that after all this time he's finally come to this country to feel just as alienated here. He makes a mental note to find out how he's doing later on.

"We need to ask some questions to figure out how to fix this; we need a proper plan, and this is how we're going to do it. Answer our questions, when did this begin?" Zoro demands, raising his voice.

"Five months ago." One man says unhappily.

"Why didn't you ask for help sooner?" Zoro asks with a frown.

"What was it that you noticed?" Sanji asks instead and kicks Zoro in the ankle under cover of the table.

The man who spoke looks between Zoro and Sanji warily but finally answers.

"I'm a farmer. I start the most delicate seeds off in pots and then put them out. But they weren't taking right, had to sow way more to get enough seedlings." The man says.

Usopp is scribbling in his notebook and Sanji sees that he's put the words 'trouble germinating' in there.

"Where did you get your water and your dirt?" Sanji asks thoughtfully.

"From the river and the ground, my farm's right by the river, so it's easy." The farmer says. Usopp continues writing.

"You got some growing though?" Sanji asks.

"Yeah, I just thought the seed had gone bad was all." The man agrees. It's a standard problem that happens now and then, irritating and time wasting but no big deal.

"You, you're a fisherman too right?" Sanji asks the Deputy Mayor and the man nods.

"The fish are dead?" Zoro asks bluntly, and the man nods sadly.

"When did that happen?" Sanji asks.

"About a month and a half ago it started to become real hard to catch any, but fish are always harder to catch after a big thunderstorm. But then they didn't come back, and there were less and less, now there are none." The man explains. Sanji tries not to roll his eyes at the idiocy. Fish don't give a fuck if there was a storm the day before, it's just superstition made up so fishermen can sleep off hangovers. All the same, it is troubling.

"It was in the ground first then, the storm washed through the soil and into the river." Nami says with a frown. Sanji agrees with her deduction.

"Who's the doctor here?" Sanji asks and the man with the faded white coat sits up.

"Have people been getting sick? Aside from just not eating I mean." Sanji asks.

"Some people, stomach sicknesses. It seems to have passed, though." The doctor says with a shrug.

"What people got sick?" Zoro asks.

"Just the farmers, no one else." The farmer says with a sharp tone of voice and a glare at the doctor. Sanji wonders if this is an argument that they've had before.

"If it was in the food everyone would be sick, though, right?" Zoro asks quietly, looking at Sanji.

"Yeah but only farmers are covered in dirt from the fields. It's in the dirt whatever it is. I can't think of much that'd get people sick when they touch it, kill plants and then kill fish when it's in the water." Sanji says unhappily.

"What about animals?" Nami asks.

"The ones in the forest or the ones on the farms?" Another man asks, Sanji really needs to start getting their names.

"Both." Nami replies instantly.

"Everything in the forest is fine, even food grown up there is fine. The bandits in the woods have even been sharing their food with us" The man says.

Sanji makes a note to thank those bandits for their generosity.

"Those are Luffy's people, they've got good hearts even if they are bandits." Zoro says softly to Sanji by way of explanation. Interesting.

"Hey, not all of the animals are fine. Mine and my neighbour's died." The farmer protests. Sanji frowns and then remembers that the man lives by the river.

"You let them drink from the river." Sanji says, he doesn't even need to ask. The man nods a little meekly.

"I'm guessing that you all drink from the well." Sanji adds and everyone at the table nods.

"Ok, good, keep doing that. No one gets water from the river at all." Sanji tells them.

"What do you three think it could be?" Johnny asks, looking at the three Baratians. Sanji really wishes that he hadn't asked that with an audience.

"It's in the water and the ground, but it can't be bacteria or a pest." Sanji says quietly to Usopp and Franky in Baratian. He can see the people around the table listening intently as if that'd help them suddenly learn the language.

"Agreed. It was the ground first, so we need to start looking there." Usopp says.

"Looking for what though? If it's dirt based then the things that could kill plants, people and animals before leeching into a river are really few and far between." Franky says with a frown.

"Well, ok, but what kinds of things?" Usopp asks reasonably.

"I don't know, like a super large amount of heavy metal. Mercury, gold dust, that kind of thing. Actually, gold dust would be really hard to distribute. Or maybe more natural and we're looking at lime, wait no lime wouldn't make people sick from touching it. Either way, it'd be a ridiculously large amount, not the kind of thing you could transport or apply subtly." Franky says with a frown.

"Not to mention expensive, who would spend so much to fuck over a bunch of rural farming folk?" Sanji says, he's missing something here he's sure of it.

"Could there be industry around here that we don't know about? That could poison things." Usopp suggests.

"That could do it but that'd poison the water first, and you'd see it spreading out from the river, not in the weirdly bordered pattern we saw it. It goes against the timeline if nothing else." Franky answers.

"Well, what about disease and water poisoning? Blight makes the crops weak and weaker to poisoning. Oh but... what'd kill everything like that? Damnit." Sanji grumbles, he thought he had something there.

"Two natural disasters at once seems really unlikely." Usopp agrees.

"Well, they do say the simplest solution is often right. It's got to be a person doing this." Franky says grimly.

"You just told us that it wasn't." Usopp says.

"He's saying we couldn't do something like this. But someone with magic could." Sanji says slowly. He does not like this at all.

"Hey, hey, we need to be responsible with what we say here. We've got to find out if anyone saw someone around the right time, but we've got to make sure they don't form a mob and just murder some antisocial old lady or the skinny kid who talks to birds." Usopp warns.

"Husband of mine, did you hear all of that?" Sanji asks calmly, not looking around so that those who are watching don’t know what he’s said.

“You don’t want a literal witch hunt. You have to say something, though.” Zoro says in neutral Baratian. He’s getting very skilled at a neutral tone.

“Nami,” Sanji says aloud in Tsukian. “I want a map of the whole area, including roads, inclines and boundaries like hedges. I want you to mark what is dead and what isn’t, the more I can see of the whole area the better.”

“I can do that. I can probably do the whole thing tomorrow if I set out early.” Nami says with a confident nod.

“Franky, get samples of the river water and try to work out what’s wrong with it with whatever tools you can make up here. The more you can tell me the better. And I want seed and soil samples too that we can match to Nami’s map.” Sanji continues.

“Johnny, Yosaku, Usopp. Go out, hunt and forage. I want us not to touch the food supplies of these people and even add to it if we can. I’ll cook for everyone if it’ll be more efficient.” Sanji adds to the three of them.

“You can take my horse as a pack horse; I’ll walk around here or borrow someone else’s.” Franky offers helpfully.

“Zoro and I are going to go to these bandits and see what the situation is there.” He adds and Zoro nods.

“But what’s the problem?” The doctor calls out to them.

“We’re mostly sure that the problem is in the soil itself, the water is only sick because of the ground. We’ve ruled several things out already, and we should know more after tomorrow. No one should touch the soil from now on, and no one should drink from the river or let their animals drink from the river.” Sanji says confidently. He does not mention that the only way this is possible that he can think is that a person did this. A person is responsible deliberately for all of this suffering.

When he finds this person and proves that it was them, he will kill them.

“And what about Mihawk? What’s he doing?” One of the farmers demands and Sanji’s toes curl in his boots. That is exactly the kind of talk that they don’t want.

“He cannot do anything until we provide him with answers and our assessment of the best strategy from here. He is sympathetic to your plight but without information about how bad this is and exactly what is wrong he can’t help properly. That is why we are here, so work with us.” Zoro answers with his tone brokering absolutely no argument. Sanji notes that Zoro doesn’t say that Mihawk sent him because that would be a lie. He is correct that Mihawk needs to know how bad this is, the question remains what will happen when their group does return to the castle. Sanji does not think the man is petty enough to let a village of people die to punish them, nor amoral enough to do that. He’ll still help. But Mihawk is going to face a group of people who disobeyed him and won’t say that they’re sorry for doing so. Sanji is sure that if he told Zeff this story that Zeff would be proud of Sanji and Zoro, but will Mihawk see it that way? Will Mihawk value Zoro’s loyalty and obedience to his position over actually trying to help people? How will it reflect on Sanji? Will he be distrusted from here on out? The meddlesome son-in-law who corrupted the honourable prince?

Sanji’s worries are whirling in his head, and he hopes that they aren’t showing on his face. It seems that Zoro had continued talking though and the meeting was breaking up. Even their own group are shifting off to their rooms with mutterings of getting ready for the next day; Usopp is bragging about how good his shooting is as they go up the stairs. It’s just Zoro and Sanji remaining in the main room and Zoro is looking at him with a grin that has the edges of teeth peeking out of it.

“What?” Sanji asks suspiciously.

“You know, I’m pretty sure that next year both of us are going to have our schooling pick up again, if not before then. And I’m confident that you are going to far outstrip expectations when it comes to strategy and secrecy.” Zoro grins at him.

“And why is that?” Sanji replies warily.

“Because you’re a sneaky, sly, underhanded bastard. I feel sorry for anyone on the wrong side of you.” Zoro tells him with a smile still on his face.

“That is one of the strangest compliments I have ever gotten.” Sanji replies after a few moments. Zoro just shrugs and remains looking pleased.

“If it helps to return the gesture… I’m impressed with how you spoke to them. I’ve heard you talk to your men before, your family and your nakama. But I’ve never heard you talk to your subjects as their prince. I think if I’d heard you speak like that and been able to understand it when I first met you I’d have been very surprised.” Sanji confesses.

“You thought I’d be all sword waving and screaming, huh?” Zoro asks, raising an eyebrow.

“In fairness to me, that’s not entirely wrong. You do a good deal of screaming and swinging your sword.” Sanji laughs, and Zoro does too. He sometimes forgets that under all this life altering shit like travelling across the country, nearly dying, learning a new language, meeting in-laws and saving people’s lives; under all that they’re still just two dumb teenagers in love.

He kisses Zoro when he’s partway through forming a defence to his sword waving and screaming behaviours. Zoro seems happy enough to drop the argument for the price of a kiss. Sanji pulls back ever so slightly, so they’re only just touching the tip of their noses together.

“I know I said it before but thanks for coming with me and backing me up on this.” Sanji says quietly, and he hears Zoro laugh.

“That’s the deal, stupid shark.” Zoro replies and Sanji’s stomach flutters when he catches just what Zoro meant. His dream of Sanji’s soul and what it means for them. Augh, this is almost too much for him.

"I'm going to go and take stock of what our hosts have in their pantry. I'll add our stock to it and see if I can't make more from less." Sanji says, rapidly changing the topic.

"You can't make more from less." Zoro contradicts him.

"You underestimate how good of a cook I am." Sanji brags and Zoro just rolls his eyes.

"I think I'll explore this place, make a list of who everyone is and where they all are. Maybe also... how well they're doing too." Zoro adds that last part with some hesitation. The idea of making a list to see how close to death his subjects are is more than a little grim but these are dark times.

"If I know who to prioritise then this will go better." Sanji agrees, and Zoro seems bolstered by his words. He confidently strides out of the room, and it's only five minutes later when Sanji is examining a jar of preserved beets that he returns.

"I realise that I don't have anything to write with, or on. I tried to find something else, but all I could find was your journal and pen. I can't find anyone else in our group to ask either." Zoro explains, and Sanji understands this for the question that it is. Can Zoro write in his journal for the sake of recording vital information about people who are starving? It's not as if Zoro can read Sanji's writing in the previous pages anyway and even if he could it would be mildly embarrassing at worst. It's not like his journals from when he was thirteen and waxing poetic over every cute boy or girl who looked his way; those would be exceedingly humiliating for Zoro to read.

"Just write carefully, don't screw up my pen. Or better yet there may be a pencil in my bag too. Have a look." Sanji agrees and sends Zoro away.

One day Sanji will be able to read Zoro's language, and he has a sinking feeling that he will look over that list when he can. If he fails and any of these people starve their names will be engraved on his soul as sins he cannot remove. The only reasonable thing to do then is not to let any of them starve. He will save every last person. Usopp would tell him that if someone died it would not be Sanji's fault, Sanji didn't start this disaster, and he acted as soon as he could, he was faultless. Sanji knows full well that Usopp would be wrong, even if he can't justify how in words. He just feels it in his bones.

The innkeeper is a delightful lady called Makino, and she lives with her brother and her brother's children. She is smart and has a sharp wit, even in these bleak times Sanji can see that she is a ray of sunshine. He tries not to focus on how thin her wrists are. By evening time Sanji has catalogued the food they have remaining, what Sanji's group had brought with them and also what their neighbour has. Sanji is more than able to convince Makino that he can cook the three groups one big meal together far more efficiently than they all can separately.

Sanji is stingy with the food, giving everyone just enough to provide for their needs and exploiting foods that create fullness without too much bulk behind it. Soups and stews made with water from the well fill and provide nourishment. He makes it taste damn good, though, herbs and spices dance across the tongue like it's the most important performance of their lives. Everyone says how good it is and there are even people from other households sticking their heads around the door and salivating at the food.

Sanji agrees that from then on he will cook for everyone at once, with a little help of course. He has an instant supply of volunteers and Sanji couldn't be more pleased. Communal meals fosters a sense of togetherness and when everyone is required to contribute it reduces the risk of food hoarding, something which in circumstances like these can turn bloody.

The cleaning is left to those who didn't help, and Sanji retires to their room to let them get on with it. Prince or not Zeff was never keen to let him get out of scrubbing duty when he was a young learner, and he has no desire to repeat that chore if he doesn't strictly speaking have to. Besides, he got stabbed one time when he was washing up! All the more reason to never do it again.

"Don't think that I didn't notice." Zoro says as Sanji goes to kick the door to their room shut behind him. Zoro has caught it; Sanji didn't even know the other man was behind him.

"Notice?" Sanji repeats in confusion.

"You didn't eat, or not more than a bite." Zoro says sharply.

"I ate while I was cooking. Lots of taste testing for your ungrateful palette." Sanji says defensively.

"A full meal? As much as everyone else had? Or did you taste the smallest amounts, so you knew it was good and then let everyone have their part of your share?" Zoro accuses, shutting the door behind him.

Sanji starts to protest, but his stomach growls loudly, the fucking traitor that it is. He's probably being a bit irrational too; that happens when he's hungry.

"One missed meal won't kill me, they're starving, and I'm not. Every bite counts for them." Sanji says honestly, and Zoro's shoulders drop.

"They need you to be thinking clearly to get them out of this mess. If you're really going to refuse to eat every so often then you can at least share my food." Zoro says unhappily.

"I can't take food from you." Sanji argues.

"If one missed meal won't kill you then halving one of mine every so often won't kill me either. I'm not starving." Zoro snaps angrily and Sanji shifts uncomfortably.

He can't place why he feels his way, why he should be last on the list of people fed. He knows starvation; he would paradoxically do anything to avoid it again but also he would throw himself into it if it meant keeping another out. It is perhaps time to accept that he is somewhat fucked up on this topic. But Zoro isn't, and Zoro understands self-sacrifice too, so maybe he can compromise. That's what their relationship is about, isn't it?

"Can I ask you something? I might be an asshole about it later but..." Sanji trails off.

"I'm sure I'll be shocked. What is it?" Zoro asks, folding his arms.

"You know what happened to me, more or less. I hate talking about it, and I hate thinking about it. I never want anyone ever to feel what I felt but these people are getting close to it, and I'm trying to do everything I can to stop it, and I don't know-" Sanji's voice freezes.

"You don't know if you're going to go too far." Zoro fills in for him. He gets it, and Sanji's shoulders slump with relief.

"My old man ate his own leg to stay alive; I don't exactly come from a line of people who act rationally at all times. These people are desperate, and it makes me desperate. I mean, have you noticed the unusually high stable to horse ratio around here?" Sanji snorts. There's plenty of empty stables, but Sanji thinks he's seen maybe two horses that aren't there own since being here. Hungry people are desperate people, and horses are expensive to feed.

"You want me to watch your form, tell you if you're pushing yourself to the point of injury or idiocy." Zoro says succinctly.

"If you're going to put it in that weird sparring metaphor then yes." Sanji agrees.

"I can do that." Zoro says easily and settles on a place on the floor, ready to meditate as always.

"You should teach me that someday." Sanji comments, glad to be off of their previous uncomfortable discussion.

"I will." the other man replies and Sanji digs in his bag for his ink and pen since Zoro found a pencil, Sanji can see it resting atop his journal on the nearby nightstand. He pauses when his hand touches crinkled greaseproof paper. The emergency rations Zeff gave him. He peels back the paper a little and the distinctive smell hits him and makes his mouth water and his stomach gurgle again.

"You should eat some of that." Zoro says without opening his eyes.

Sanji wants to protest that Zoro can't tell him what to do, even though he just got done asking him to do just that. He intends to protest that he should be saving it for other people who really need it. That is perhaps a fucked up thing to think; he's not sure, and if he wants to find out he has to bother Zoro with it and voice that aloud. He doesn't want to do that, so he's left with doing what Zoro says.

He stuffs some in his mouth.

"'ore no' da' boss o' me." He says around the food in his mouth, Zoro snorts in amusement but does nothing else.

Sanji locates his pen and ink then sifts through his journal to the next blank page after Zoro's pencilled writing in his strange script. He wonders if Zoro has neat handwriting or messy handwriting. Zoro is precise, so it could be neat, but he is also often careless with things that he deems unimportant. Sanji lets this foolish train of thought pour out over the page and then adds in the information about today, the food, the people.

It occurs to him as he bleeds his stress out with ink on paper that he may well be doing just what Zoro is but in another way. Zoro’s at least takes up fewer bookshelves. When he is done he looks up to see that Zoro is sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms folded atop of them; his chin rests on his arms, and he’s watching Sanji. Sanji wonders how long he’s been sat like that, how much time has passed since Zoro has been done and only watched Sanji instead.

“I didn’t mean to make you wait.” Sanji mutters, hastily corking the ink and setting his supplies aside. He has ink on his forefinger, spread out through his fingerprint. He’s been sat on the mattress of the bed this whole time, lacking a proper table and chair at write at and keeping the pot of ink on the night stand. At least he hasn’t spilt any.

“Don’t apologise.” Zoro tells him.

“Technically I- what are you doing?” Sanji’s chosen line diverts when Zoro crosses the room and climbs onto the bed, or rather climbs over Sanji’s lap with one knee on each side.

Zoro doesn’t answer him but instead places his hands on either side of Sanji’s face and leans in to kiss him. Sanji doesn’t mind of course, but he’s not sure where all this is coming from. They’d almost been arguing earlier and then it was silent meditation and writing, hardly the sort of thing he’d expect Zoro to get worked up over. Nevertheless, he still has teenage hormones going around his system, so he is certainly interested.

Zoro is kissing Sanji’s jaw and working him out of his shirt. His hand runs over Sanji’s bare skin when he succeeds, rubbing over his stomach. It feels hollow already even though Sanji knows that there’s no way it is, one skipped meal does not cause starvation. His mind flashes an image of Makino’s too thin wrists, of how Sanji’s own became no more than bone and sinew covered by paper thin skin. He is surrounded by starvation, the hell just comes with him and-

“Shh, stop thinking about it.” Zoro whispers in his ear and eases him back on their borrowed bed. Sanji’s mind whirrs.

“You’re… doing this to distract me.” Sanji concludes, and Zoro takes his own shirt off with a little bit of showmanship, he’s trying to be appealing.

“Am I a good distraction?” Zoro asks in a purr.

Scorched, dead fields flare up behind Sanji’s eyelids when he blinks. They are every bit as isolating as unforgiving sea in every direction. He is not handling this well. Before today he had getting here and assessing to focus on, then meeting people, deducing information, planning and cooking. But now it’s just him and the creeping miasma of starvation sinking into him with nothing to stop him from-

Zoro kisses his neck and scrapes sharp canine teeth along his skin above his fast beating pulse. He wants Zoro to do it, to bite him. But Zoro agreed to leave that ball firmly in Sanji’s court. Having sex for the first time with Zoro would almost certainly distract him, but that would cheapen it for them both. He wants to, though, oh how he wants to. It’s starting to get impossible; he feels like at this rate he’s going to die before he gets to go that far with his husband.

Still, he’s not thinking about starving again. Well, now he is. Fuck. Zoro might have a point here.

With shaking hands, he feels up Zoro’s bare skin. Zoro makes a happy sounding groan against Sanji’s collarbone.

“Can you stop me thinking about anything but you, please?” He asks weakly; he hates sounding weak.

“That was my plan.” Zoro snorts and Sanji knees him in the ribs.

“Well forgive my asking, I didn’t know you did this deliberately.” Sanji snaps.

“I guess I could be unbuckling your belt by accident. Whoops.” Zoro says sarcastically as it clinks open and Zoro pulls everything down to Sanji’s knees in one go. Fucking suave indeed.

“I wish I’d never taught you sarcasm.” Sanji says, and Zoro rolls his eyes.

“You taught me the right tone in your language; you didn’t invent sarcasm.” Zoro retorts.

“That’s what you want me to think.” Sanji counters and sits up, reaching for Zoro’s own belt. The prince grabs his hands and then wraps his large right hand around both of Sanji’s wrists. He can just manage it with his big ape hands. Zoro shoves him back down and holds him there with his hand around Sanji’s wrists and then moves to pin Sanji down with the fabric from his trousers which is bunched around his knees.

“Got you.” Zoro says in a pleased voice and reaches down to massage Sanji’s naked hip in a way that the other man has already worked out does things for Sanji.

“You really haven’t.” Sanji points out, and he’s right. He could easily get his legs free; he wouldn’t have working trousers afterwards, but he could do it. His hands he’d be more careful with, but he could get out of it.

“I could get out.” He adds confidently.

“You won’t.” Zoro says just as confidently and leans down to kiss Sanji’s neck as his hand wanders closer to his prize. Sanji tilts his head to the side and tries to work out if Zoro is saying that Sanji couldn’t get free or even though he can get free he’ll choose not to. The second is correct, but the first requires a fight.

Zoro licks a broad swipe up Sanji’s neck, and it makes Sanji shiver.

“Don’t lick me like that, what are you? Some kind of cat?” Sanji says reproachfully, and Zoro laughs lowly in a way that makes the fire in Sanji’s blood surge higher.

“According to you, I am.” Zoro points out and looks at him with those gold eyes that Sanji has seen before on the tiger in his dream. He swallows thickly, knowing now just what that means.

Zoro’s lazy left hand is finally doing what it’s supposed to, even if he could stand to go a little faster.

“What about you, though?” Sanji asks, biting his lip as he looks down at Zoro’s half-clothed body.

“You’re supposed to stop thinking. Worrying about me counts as thinking.” Zoro points out.

“Please?” Sanji begs and it’s not often that he does that. He’d rather not feel like Zoro is just doing him a favour, that leads to guilt and guilt leads to things that he’s not meant to be thinking of. He tries not to think of it, instead focusing on Zoro’s bare chest. Distraction, think of words that describe Zoro’s chest. Bronze, muscled, chiselled, scarred, uh… he needs to coin a word for ‘would happily lick frosting off of’.

“Since you asked so nicely.” Zoro says, pulling Sanji from his ridiculous but successful mental distraction. Zoro undoes his own belt one handed. Left handed in fact. Is that more common in this country? Usopp is ambidextrous so-

Oh, no more thinking then. Zoro now has both of their dicks in his hand, and Sanji can’t remember what he was thinking of.

“Aah, fucking yes already.” Sanji groans happily.

“You always switch languages at this point, why?” Zoro asks, kissing Sanji’s chest as he continues.

“Nnh, it’s- fuuuck. Better for cursing in, don’t have to do tone. Speed up, or I’m gonna rip your arms off!” Sanji snaps. Zoro laughs but obliges him, thank God.

“That doesn’t make sense, what did you do before you spoke my - clearly better - language?” Zoro goads him, and Sanji remembers that Zoro is actively trying to distract him.

“I didn’t DO this before.” Sanji argues. He’d probably have a better come back if Zoro wasn’t putting the pressure with his fingers just there because that feels great.

“You got a pair of hands of your own.” Zoro points out in a filthy tone.

“Are you asking me to change language right now? Is that a thing you want?” Sanji gasps, tilting his head back and feeling all of the hair on his face slide back.

“Say please and I will.” Sanji goads Zoro, grinning at him sharply. Zoro is silent, but his face speaks volumes, fuck it speaks whole libraries of yes.

“Please?” Zoro says weakly, and Sanji’s face splits into a grin. Normal people probably don’t see everything as a competition like Sanji does, but he doesn’t care because he just won!

“Fuck, I love you so much.” Sanji says, in Baratian now. Zoro’s hand gets a little tighter all of a sudden and Sanji has to catch his breath.

He’s not totally sure what he says, praise mostly. He curses and his tone wanders but really when he means everything so emphatically right now it doesn’t matter so much. He recalls calling Zoro beautiful and perfect, only because he will forever remember that raw emotion on Zoro’s face. His primary focus is on staying in the right language and dragging this out as long as he can.

Eventually, though they both reach their breaking point and end up an exhausted and sweaty mess of limbs. They sleepily clean and dress for bed and are snoring against each other in a dreamless heap in no time.

  
Sanji opens his eyes to the surface of the water some distance above him. Not so dreamless then.

He sits up calmly and looks around him. He’s underwater, but it is thankfully not interfering with that whole breathing thing that he values so much. The water is sliding over his skin calmly but steadily, and the ground below him is soft sand, patterned by the rush of water above it. He seems to be in some kind of crevasse with high stone walls jutting jaggedly up to the glimmering surface.

“No, come back.” That’s Zoro’s voice! Sanji whirls around to see Zoro a little ways down the water with a big ass shark circling him. Sanji’s heart seizes in panic, and he swims as fast as he can. Zoro seems unaware of the danger that he’s in. It’s a Blue Shark; they’re not usually super aggressive, but Zoro is reaching out to pet the fucking thing like it’s dog and-

Zoro’s hand comes out and touches the shark’s side, sliding down it as the shark lazily swims by him. Sanji can almost feel the ghost of a touch on his own body.

“That’s better.” Zoro laughs and pets the shark again, double handed as it coils around him and then away again.

Sanji’s own swimming has halted, and he’s only carried to Zoro by the current. He was… a shark. Zoro said he was a shark and this feels weird, strange and abnormal. Sanji feels a clench of panic wrap around his heart as he tries to alter the dream around him and can’t. Oh shit, if he can’t control his dreams then he could get stuck on the rock again and then-

A rumble ripples through the water, harsh on Sanji’s ears and rhythmic on his skin. Like a tremor, a precursor to an underwater earthquake. Zoro is looking at a dark cave and frowning. Sanji hadn’t noticed the cave before, but for some reason, he would do absolutely anything not to go inside there ever again.

“Zoro, what’s going on?” Sanji calls out, and Zoro looks up at him.

“Sanji.” Zoro says stupidly as he looks around at Sanji.

“That didn’t answer my question, asshole.” Sanji argues. In the distance behind Zoro Sanji can see the shark getting agitated, the kind of agitated that leads to biting and makes Sanji nervous.

“There’s water here again.” Zoro says stupidly, and he sounds almost drunk. It’s like he’s not aware of what he’s saying.

“No shit.” Sanji sighs and inches away from the unnerving cave. He looks around at the water, the caves, the shark and the whole area. This is like Zoro described. Though Zoro’s description sounded distinctly more magical and majestic, to Sanji this just looks like a place he wouldn’t really want to swim in what with the weird shark and the unsettling caves.

“Is this the place from that knowing dream that you told me about?” Sanji asks and then instantly worries that he’d said the wrong kind of knowing. But the more that he thinks about it, the less sure he is of what language he was speaking at all.

“It’s you.” Zoro answers hazily and holds out his hand in time for a school of clownfish to swim around it and then away again. Sanji focuses on his voice and can’t hear an accent at all; Zoro's not actually speaking any language at all and yet Sanji can understand him perfectly.

“This is magical bullshit.” Sanji groans, covering his face with his hands.

So he’s dreaming, or rather they’re both dreaming. The whole knowing dream in the first place is a bunch of magical nonsense but apparently it means that Zoro is literally flailing around underwater in Sanji’s mind. It’s pretty inconvenient for him because Sanji wanted to use his own mind. It figures that he’s the only one that’s lucid as always and he gets saddled with dream dumbed down Zoro who is trying to pet a shark like it’s a dog.

“I want my crown back.” Sanji grumbles and swims away. Zoro is going to be of no help at all, and Sanji can’t change this dream because it’s his soul or some shit like that, so the least that he can do is explore. He breaks the surface to find himself face to face with a pair of big gold eyes and wide pupils.

A tongue rasps across his forehead and flicks his hair out of his eyes.

“Augh, gross.” Sanji protests and shoves the beast back by the nose. The large tiger sits up on the river bank and licks at its nose in displeasure.

Wait. Tiger, river? Sanji turns around in the water and sees the familiar looking autumnal woodland that he walked through in his dream of Zoro. He’s sure though that this stretch of water had been two inches deep, not a deep underwater gorge full of caves and a shark. Sanji sits on the bank of the river and looks up at the way that it carves its way through the landscape. Does he truly split Zoro’s soul in two like this? It’s as prominent as the scar across his chest. But then he could just as quickly point out, does Zoro make up the bedrock of Sanji’s life and surround him without restricting the path that he takes? Maybe not once but now…

A wet nose presses against Sanji’s cheek and warm breath huffs against his skin in a chittering sound.

“Yeah, magical bullshit.” Sanji agrees without any malice in his voice. He reaches up and buries his fingers in thick orange fur and scratches. He used to be wary of this tiger before he knew what it was but now he knows that it’s Zoro he’s in no danger at all.

“I’d been hoping to have some brilliant insights on this problem when I slept.” Sanji says unhappily. Often answers to things that bother him come to him when he’s asleep. He’s lucid, sure, but he’s not awake. His brain functions differently, and he can literally play with his environment as he wishes to see the problem better, his dream world will often warp to give him the answer to his problems that he hadn’t seen in the light of day. This dream limits his ability to do that; it’s Zoro’s actual soul that he’s dicking around in here.

“Not that I’m unhappy to see you.” Sanji adds, turning and petting the tiger some more. It’s nice to know the name of the animal at least.

“I just wanted answers.” Sanji tells the Zoro tiger.

“I just needed…” Sanji stands up and trails off. Something feels wrong. Zoro snarls at his side but Sanji feels almost as if he is in a trance.

Before him is a window. It’s dark outside, and he can see his reflection in it. No, not his reflection but one he knows very well. Too well. Not well enough.

“Lucidity.” He/not he says to the reflection that is his and not.

“No…” A voice says behind him in horror; it’s his voice, but he didn’t speak. He drops a plate on the ground, and it shatters on the floor around his high heeled boots.

He turns without choosing to, piloted by a body that is and isn't his own. He sees himself by the staircase. His hair is somewhat longer; he has a crown on but not like his own but like those that his/her sister/niece wears. Sanji’s head hurts, it’s too packed in here. He’s looking at his own horrified face and tears are streaming down it, Zoro is looking between them with dawning horror.

“It’s happening, no.” The other him says. He’s so big now, pride fills his narrow chest where nothing but rage has lived for years.

“You should have had this for years. But it’s hereditary. I should have told you.” He/not he says. God his voice is wrong but somehow familiar. It's like children's stories on the beach but hollowed out over the years to something empty.

“But I know how this goes; it can’t go like that. Shit, I remember saying this!” He says, recoiling away and bumping into Zoro.

Sanji/not Sanji had been trying to reach for him. He/not he looks down at his hand. It’s so pale; he can see dark veins under the papery surface of skin.

“Sometimes you can move to a different vein, change at the branch. Sometimes you are stuck. Know the difference.”

Sanji, the other one, is shaking his head and he reaches out his hands to… himself, her? One hand is closed, though, holding something. He knows what. He is faster than other him, snatching it from his hands and backing off. A way out at last.

“No! Please, we can try to cure this!” Sanji begs and anger flares up. A cure? No!

“This should never be cured! I want… I want to go to the sea.” He says, holding it up to his mouth.

“That’ll kill you!” Zoro warns. He is handsome, isn’t he? So proud.

“I know. Now say the words Sanji. Say the words, the map to get you here.” She/he orders.

He looks so pained. Fat tears drip from his tanned skin; he’s been in the sun lately. He grew up so much, if only…

“I don’t want to.” He whimpers.

“You must, little duck.” He tells himself in a voice that is not his own.

The Prince sniffs, stands up straight, wipes his eyes and speaks in a shaking voice. He always was such a brave child, and now a man.

“A poisoned fruit from across the sea.” He says, his voice trembling.

He smiles, when was the last time he smiled? So much time ago.

“Please, don’t-” Sanji begs, reaching out.

“Thank you, goodbye.” He says and eats the thing in his hand and collapses backwards onto the floor. Sanji screams. Everything goes black.

Sanji jerks upright in bed with the taste of salt filling his mouth. He scrambles over Zoro and retches; thankfully he has nothing to throw up.

“Are you ok?” Zoro asks, reaching out for him in the dark.

Sanji scrambles over Zoro even more to reach his journal and he slaps his hand around to find the pencil. He flips to a page near the back that he knows is blank and writes down those words from his dream. He can hear a dripping sound and realises where it’s coming from.

“My nose is bleeding.” He tells Zoro numbly.

What just happened to him?


	31. Chapter 31

“It’s nothing.” Sanji insists calmly. No one in the room is convinced, that’s a more telling statement now that Usopp, Franky and Nami are here too.

“You woke up, nearly threw up on me then kneed me in the kidney and jammed your elbow in my stomach so you could write something down and have a nosebleed.” Zoro snaps angrily. Sanji’s sleep shirt is still stained with blood and there are traces of it in his goatee.

“What’s a kidney?” Sanji asks, entirely missing the point. Usopp quickly translates the word and Sanji nods.

“Were you feeling sick before bed?” Franky questions the blond and Sanji shakes his head.

“I felt good.” Sanji answers and his cheeks go slightly pink. Zoro knows just how good Sanji was feeling before bed.

“Do you often get nose bleeds like that?” Nami asks with a frown pinching her thin brows together.

“Not anymore, Usopp don’t you dare laugh I will kick you.” Sanji threatens quickly, and Usopp and Franky suppress sniggering. Interesting, but that’s for later.

“It took fifteen minutes to stop bleeding, that’s not nothing. If you’d hit your face on something I wouldn’t be worried but unexplained bleeding is concerning.” Zoro tells him.

“I’m fine now; it was just a dream.” Sanji says defensively. He’s never liked a fuss being made of him, but that’s too bad because it’s happening anyway.

Nami sits down on the bed suddenly and grabs Sanji’s face between her hands.

“Tell me everything about your dream, leave nothing out. And do it in Baratian, Usopp you’re going to translate it all. I want it perfect. And show me what you wrote.” Nami orders. Her tone is like steel, and she looks at the startled sniper until he wilts under her scrutiny.

“You guys agreed to be nakama with her; this is part of the deal. She gets to boss you around when she thinks it’s in your best interest, even if it’s not obvious why she usually ends up being right.” Zoro tells Sanji with a sigh. He grabs Sanji’s journal; it’s still open on the blood-splattered pages and hands it to Usopp.

Sanji looks imploringly to Zoro for help but he’s not going to do anything. He’s had enough of being at the bedside of a sick husband, if this is the warning signs of something worse to come then he is going to ambush the life out of it. Sanji doesn’t have to like Zoro doing that, but it’s going to happen regardless.

“The phrase doesn’t make a lot of sense, I think it’s meant to be a metaphor, but I don’t know what for. I can give you a straight literal translation though if you like.” Usopp offers.

“Do that.” Nami says.

“A poisoned fruit from across the sea.” Usopp says in calm Tsukian.

“Poison? You think someone poisoned you?” Zoro asks in alarm.

“You mean did I, the only chef, poison the meal I didn’t eat?” Sanji says flatly and Zoro winces at his stupidity. Those were easy details to forget for sure.

“What does that sentence mean?” Nami asks, finally letting go of Sanji’s face.

“I don’t know, it was just in my dream.” Sanji answers, squirming back a little.

“Why did you write it down? What was so urgent about that line that looks like it means nothing that you had to write it down even though you were bleeding?” Usopp questions the man, he grits his teeth and snarls angrily.

“I don’t know! It was just a dream, and it was just a nosebleed. It doesn’t need everyone in my room in the ass-end of the night interrogating me!” Sanji yells at them all.

“Tell me about your dream, in Baratian.” Nami orders him, entirely ignoring Sanji’s temper.

“Just go with it, please.” Zoro pleads, both because he wants to get to the bottom of this and because he wants to go back to bed. Anything that makes Nami leave sooner is best. Sanji seems to waver and then eventually sighs.

“I had the knowing dream again. Just… not my one. Or not right away. I was in Zoro’s.” Sanji explains in his own language.

Familiarity bubbles in the back of Zoro’s mind, his dream had been interrupted by Sanji’s awakening and subsequent bleeding. But he had been dreaming; he remembers seeing Sanji underwater. His gold hair curling in the currents as he scowled and folded his arms in displeasure.

“I- I think I was having that dream too. I remember you underwater.” Zoro says as the memory comes back to him.

“Yeah, and a fat lot of help you were. I was the only one who was-” And then Sanji says some word that Zoro doesn’t know.

Everyone looks at Usopp who is scratching his head.

“I don’t think there’s a Tsukian word for this. Have you ever had a dream that you know is a dream when you’re in it?” Usopp asks. Nami nods, but Zoro isn’t sure if he has for sure or not.

“Well, all of Sanji’s dreams are like that. The Baratian for it is lucid and lucidity. He’s aware even in his dreams, and he can usually change stuff, right?” Usopp says, looking around Nami to Sanji for confirmation.

“Yeah, the only dreams I can’t control are that one nightmare and the knowing dream. So I couldn’t control this one. Also, the top of my river now goes into my dream of your soul. They’re the same place now.” Sanji tells him, looking up from where he’s sat on the bed.

Their souls really are stuck together like that? The place that Zoro had felt was entirely Sanji, the water, the fish and all of it was embedded in Zoro’s soul’s landscape? It makes sense but the idea is almost unbearably romantic. He’s more than a little envious of Sanji for being able to be awake in a place like that.

“So you moved from one place to the other.” Nami prompts the other prince once more.

“Fine. I got out on the river bank and Zoro was there, the tiger Zoro I mean. I was complaining that I had wanted to be lucid and alter a normal dream to help me figure out the problem with the crops here. I said that I wanted…” Sanji trails off with a frown.

“What? What did you want?” Nami asks after Usopp is done translating.

“Lucidity. And as I said it there was a window there.” Sanji says slowly, his brow furrowing.

“Hanging in the middle of the forest?” Zoro asks, feeling lost. Did he misunderstand Sanji?

“Yeah. And it was the afternoon I think but the other side of this window was dark, and I could see my reflection in it. But I don’t think I was me; I think I was someone else.” Sanji says slowly and brings his palm up to his cheek as if to check that his face is still his own.

“Could someone else be interfering with Sanji’s mind? Kalifa maybe?” Franky asks worriedly. Nami shushes him and waves for Sanji to continue.

“I was injured I think, or I had been. There were stitches on my skin, like Zoro’s old scar. But I know that face, but it’s hard to remember it.” Sanji says, shaking his head.

“You remembered the rest just fine.” Zoro points out.

“Well, this wasn’t like the rest of my dream. From that point on I wasn’t in control of my dream, when I spoke it was me and wasn’t me. It was like it was someone else’s dream, hers I think.” Sanji argues back; he seems genuinely unsettled. Zoro supposes that if he could always control his dreams then he too would feel distressed at having that control wrenched from him, especially if it usually only happens for Sanji’s nightmares about that rock in the ocean.

“Wait, he said ‘her’ who is the woman?” Nami asks after conferring with Usopp.

Sanji looks deeply uncomfortable and won’t make eye contact with anyone. After a few long seconds, he starts talking again.

“I heard my own voice, from behind me. There was another version of me, but he looked a little older maybe? I wasn’t seeing things from his point of view and the longer things went on it seemed like he knew how the whole dream was going to go. My hair, I mean his hair was longer and I had a crown that I’ve never seen before. Zoro was there too and he had one as well.” Sanji says in one long stream. It takes a moment or two for Usopp to catch everyone up.

“Where were you? And don’t think I’ve forgotten my question about who you were but let’s start with the basics.” Nami questions.

“Some kind of castle I think? It was dark and cold, I think it was night time too. It started with me dropping a plate, I… she was wearing these black high heeled boots.” Sanji says with a look of almost disgust on his face.

“And netted tights.” Usopp translates because Zoro caught none of it when Sanji spoke. Unsurprisingly he and Sanji don’t talk a lot about women’s undergarments; it doesn’t come up for some reason.

Sanji’s disgust is an interesting reaction. Sanji certainly isn’t averse to women and he made it clear before that he didn’t regard the person in his dream that he was embodying to be himself. So that’s unlikely to be disgust at having to wear those clothes either, not that Zoro can see a reason why that would bring disgust anyway but he doesn’t get Baratian fashion. There’s something else.

“I made that other me say those words that I wrote down, and I seemed upset about it but I said it anyway. And once I had it was like… a loop had been closed or something. It was scripted and I didn’t know what was going to be said but he… the other me did.” Sanji explains with a shake of his head. He leans forward and massages his fingers against his scalp.

“Then I stole a giant hunk of salt from myself and died, I think. Then I woke up, wrote that down and bled all over Zoro. It was just a weird ass dream and I want to go back to sleep now.” Sanji says waspishly.

“You also kneed me.” Zoro points out lazily.

“I’ll do it again if you don’t shut up!” Sanji argues loudly.

“Sanji, who were you in the dream?” Usopp asks again and Sanji goes still, as if Usopp might not see him if he’s not moving.

“Why don’t you want to tell us?” Zoro asks. Sanji isn’t cagey like this for no reason.

“I was my mother, okay?” Sanji mumbles, looking down at his knees and avoiding everyone else.

The room is silent, everyone knows that Sanji’s mother is dead. Zoro has never got Sanji to talk about her, not really and even then he wasn’t sober. Knowing Sanji he probably thinks it’s his fault. Zoro doesn’t think that even he and Zeff talk to each other about her. Zoro has never particularly considered himself lucky to have both parents; everyone should have both, it’s only fair. But the more he hears of his nakama’s lives and Sanji’s life he is grateful for both his parents being both alive and present in his life. He can’t imagine Sanji’s pain.

“Not too long after my adoptive mother died I had a dream.” Nami says softly.

“I dreamt of myself surrounded by a storm that would never hurt me and did whatever I told it to. I woke up to a gale that ripped three trees out of the ground but stopped the moment I sat up. And I had one monster of a nosebleed.” Nami says and Sanji rubs his still slightly blood smeared upper lip.

"That was the dream that you had which told you that you were a witch. You're saying you think that he is too." Zoro concludes and Nami nods.

"I told you people already, I'm not a witch. Nami was the first witch that I'd ever met, so I think it's pretty unlikely! Besides, I'm a lot older than you were then, aren't I? Isn't this thing supposed to happen when you're a child or a really young teenager?" Sanji points out.

"Sometimes it's later, but in those cases it's usually because it's hereditary." The witch explains with a nod.

"I don't know what that word means." Sanji says, looking at Usopp for help.

"Hereditary. You inherit something from a parent. Like... you having blue eyes is something you inherited from your mother from when you were born but being the King will be something that you inherit when Zeff isn't King anymore. The sense that Nami means is that one, she's implying that one of your parents is a witch and you're only getting the powers now from them... if one of them... died." Usopp only just manages to finish that sentence.

Zoro can see Sanji grinding his teeth together in anger, can see how Nami's insinuation is agitating him.

"My father isn't a witch, I would know if he was. And even if he were he's as old and strong as the sea; nothing is ever going to get him. As for my mother, she- it's very clear that she's dead! She's been dead for a long time, thank you very much. So if you're done rubbing my face in that idea I think you should all go!" Sanji snaps. His voice is angry but tight and Zoro has the uncomfortable feeling that Sanji is restraining crying out of anger and pain. Zoro wonders if he fell asleep now if Sanji's waters would be churning in deadly whirlpools, ready to drag down and drown people in vengeance.

"You were her in the dream, though." Nami points out.

Zoro frowns and looks at the floorboards. There is, of course, a terrible train of thought here which he cannot resist following.

He knows these things to be true.

Sanji and his parents were on a boat in the sea with plenty of other people when they were suddenly taken down by a storm. It left no survivors except Sanji and Zeff who were only rescued by chance. That is what everyone knows.

But there is already doubts as to whether it was the accident it appeared to be at the time. Could there not also be doubts on the number of survivors? If they were out at sea it's not like the bodies would have washed up, they have no proof that Sanji's mother is dead.

If she is alive or only just recently dead, then it would be perfectly reasonable for Nami's conclusion that Sanji is a witch to be true. But if that is the case then where has she been all of these years? Had she lost her memory? Was she kidnapped from the boat and the vessel sunk to cover the crime? Or did she simply not want to be with Sanji and Zeff anymore? None of these conclusions hold well for Sanji, either he'll see it as him failing to protect his mother or he'll be unspeakably hurt and betrayed.

There is no evidence for any of this. There is no reason to hurt Sanji on an idea that he stands no chance of disproving. It would just be cruel.

Nami and Sanji are still arguing.

"-kind of witch would I even be anyway? I've told you before that the fire thing is unrelated and that dream wasn't me using a power like yours was. You're wrong!" Sanji argues.

"Not all powers are so obvious! Sometimes it's seeing through the eyes of others or... or even seeing the future but- well ok that one is just a legend. That doesn't mean I'm wrong, though!" Nami retorts.

This isn't going anywhere good. Everyone is tired and upset, at this rate all that will happen is Nami and Sanji will damage their relationship with each other.

"You should all go. Get some more sleep, we all have a lot to do tomorrow. Clearly this isn't getting solved tonight." Zoro orders firmly and Usopp and Franky get up to leave. Franky shoots Sanji a sympathetic and supportive smile.

"Zoro you can't ignore this." Nami insists, not moving from her place.

"I'm not ignoring it. I'm saying that we don't need to do this now. Unless you have any evidence or a better argument we're just going in circles." Zoro points out, and Nami frowns.

"I'm not wrong." Nami insists as she gets to her feet and leaves.

Zoro shuts the door behind her and sighs. This isn't good at all.

"So what do you think then? Everyone else was saying their bit, but not you." Sanji asks, and Zoro turns to see his husband staring up at him willfully from the bed.

"Some of the stuff Nami said makes sense, but some of it doesn't. It explains the weird dream and the nosebleed, but the rest of it makes no sense. It could just be stress. I'm stressed being here, and I never went through what you did. Or maybe you're just weird." Zoro says and climbs back into bed as well.

"That was a very wishy washy answer." Sanji tells him and though Zoro has never heard that phrase before, he gets it. Shallow and moving this way and that in an unstable way, like the tide in a really shallow pool. Damn Baratians and their water metaphors, it's rubbing off on him.

"I don't know what's wrong. I don't like not knowing but that does fuck all to change the fact that I don't know. If something else happens, we'll work on it some more, if not then this will just be some weird memory." Zoro reasons and settles into bed alongside Sanji. He's left the candle lit and the gold light of it dances on Sanji's golden hair.

"I wish it felt as simple as you put it." Sanji says after a while and settles down properly too. He's not asleep, Zoro can see his eye open.

"She's been dead for a long time." Sanji says after a while. There's no emotion in it, just a statement of fact.

"I'm sorry." Zoro offers weakly. What else can he say?

"I saw her reflection in that window, I've never looked at her at the same height like that. I probably am her height now. I had almost forgotten what she looked like, what her voice sounded like." Sanji says in a strangled tone.

Sometimes when Shanks is away for a long time, Zoro finds that happens too. He'll hear his parents laughing and realise that he'd started to forget just how it sounded, even though it also feels like the noise is carved into his very bones. His parents are never apart for too long, but Sanji has spent so very long without his mother. Zoro feels stupidly guilty and selfish for having both of his parents or for ever feeling bitter that Shanks has to leave so much.

"Do you think it was just a dream or something else?" Zoro asks him quietly, instead of voicing those stupid thoughts.

"I don't know. It certainly didn't feel like I was the one dreaming, it felt like someone else's dream. Like... like hers." Sanji says slowly.

Zoro says nothing more. He has never heard of someone having such powers over their dreams as Sanji does with his. He supposes as well that it is not unthinkable that Sanji could explore his own soul as he does Zoro's, after all, they are meant to be bonded like that. He has the strange power to be awake and asleep at once, but maybe that is just a skill. But to jump from Zoro's dream to an unrelated person was... impossible. That was no mere skill like he could maybe argue Sanji has between his own dreams and Zoro's.

So he is left with this point again.

Either Sanji was just dreaming of a lost parent and a strange image of himself. Or he was developing magic related to dreams and starting to move from person to person with them. From his own, to Zoro's, to his mother's.

The only problem was, dead women don't dream.

  
Zoro doesn't so much sleep as he does doze, but the sunlight hitting his face stirs him into wakefulness after what must have been a few hours. Sanji blinks sluggishly at the ceiling and his stupid eyebrows are furrowed in thought.

"Morning." Zoro greets him warily, it's odd for them to sleep in this position. For Zoro to be curled around Sanji instead of the other way around.

"Brush your teeth and get dressed, we should get going." Sanji tells him and sits up then climbs nimbly over Zoro's body.

"Did you get to sleep at all?" Zoro asks as he peels his shirt off.

"I got an early start to the day, that's all." Sanji says in response. So, no then.

Zoro dresses and watches Sanji do the same. Not just to stare pervertedly at him, though there is that he supposes, but to see how efficient and quick Sanji is being. He's wasting no time and trying to busy himself with things. He's trying not to think, or perhaps he's eager to get to some of the answers that he's hoping they'll find up in the bandit's hills. Zoro is similarly eager to find solutions for his people and if Sanji doesn't want to talk about his personal problems right now then that's fine too.

The two of them are downstairs in no time at all. Zoro can hear the sound of breakfast being made from the kitchen; it's Franky's voice along with the innkeeper. He wonders if all Baratians are good cooks or specifically just those who spend time with Sanji. The other prince isn't loitering, though, he's going straight to the front door and out of it. He had no intention of eating breakfast, despite not having eaten dinner the night before.

Zoro scowls and marches into the kitchen. It's going to be a long hike today and he's not going to have Sanji do it hungry.

"Hey, bro. Are you out already? I thought Sanji might be helping us with food this morning." Franky says cheerfully.

"He's trying to go without eating, like last night." Zoro rats him out in Baratian and Franky scowls while the innkeeper looks puzzled.

"Oh no, he's not. Take these, he can eat and ride. I'll have Usopp help me before he gets started today." Franky says and shoves two large bread rolls into Zoro's hands. There's some kind of filling but Zoro can't tell what.

"See you." Zoro bids goodbye and goes to leave. How can he ensure that Sanji eats this and won't just return it for someone else to eat?

He rounds the building and goes into the stables thoughtfully. Sanji is already setting his horse's tack into place and is almost done. Hmmm.

He steps forward and quick as he can smacks the roll into Sanji's face. The blond yells 'FUCK' loud enough to startle several of the horses, though not Sanji's own who is clearly used to his outbursts.

"No one else will want to eat that after your ugly face has been on it, so eat." Zoro tells him and moves smoothly on by to his own horse and goes through the process of getting saddled up and ready to go.

"You're the worst." Sanji mutters bitterly from the other end of the room. Zoro hears the crunch of the bread roll and somehow manages not to feel bad at all.

As soon as his horse is set Zoro climbs on and retrieves his slightly smushed roll from his pocket and eats as they leave. The paste in it tastes familiar but Zoro isn't sure where from.

"What is this?" Zoro asks as they ride out of the small village with their horses.

"It's a kind of nut butter... paste... thing. I'm not sure what you call it in your language. I'm also not sure what the name of the nut is for you either and I suspect that if I describe what it looks like to you it won't be of any help either." Sanji replies.

Zoro wants to protests that he's not an idiot but he is right, Zoro's botany skills aren't massively high. His parents and trainers taught him enough to know 'this thing will for sure kill you' in the wild and then how to hunt but foraging for nuts wasn't something he did a lot. He knows the most common ones, like the autumn chestnuts near the castle that are perfect for roasting by the fire with a little salt. His father used to tell him stories of their ancestors whenever they did that when Zoro was small. It's strange how a taste, even a recalled one, can bring back a memory like that.

"I know some, but we can just ask Franky and the innkeeper later." Zoro agrees and then they are out of the village and onto the farmyard roads.

No people are working, on Sanji's sensible orders. But between the lack of people, animals and plants it makes everything seem far too eerie. The hairs on Zoro's neck stand on end and he nudges his swords with his elbow just to feel that they're still there.

"It's this way, are you lost?" Sanji asks, leading on.

"I'm not lost!" Zoro argues and catches up to his husband. "I was just staring is all. It's still really creepy to look at out there."

"It is." Sanji agrees simply.

They ride on in silence, having to re-route at one point to avoid that fallen tree from before. Zoro watches Sanji as much as he watches the ghostly fields around them. The other man is scrutinising the plants as they go, trying his best to work out what or who killed them. There's no such activity for Zoro right now. To him, a dead plant is a dead plant. It's people that Zoro can deal with and he's anticipating talking to Luffy's people about all of this. Will their timeline match those of the people down here? Can they be persuaded to help those people more, and what are they already doing? Without those people here to question, Zoro has nothing to do.

The time until they get to green land again seems to drag forever, but they do eventually make their way to the edge of the bandit hills.

"So, is it this steep the whole way up?" Sanji asks as he looks up the green embankment which leads into the treeline.

"Not the whole way, no. The terrain is pretty challenging but they have horses up there too so you can get them there, we'll probably just have to walk. From what I remember it's pretty step-like, we call them the bandit hills but I suppose it's a mountain." Zoro explains, motioning with his hand the stepped cone shape that he means.

"Hill kind of undersells it." Sanji agrees as he climbs off of Seafoam.

"Yeah, I guess it's a mountain. Don't worry, though, there's no dragons at the top. Not like your mountains." Zoro teases, also dismounting.

"Go fuck yourself!" Sanji yells over the back of his horse and angrily makes his way into the treeline. Zoro snickers to himself and follows on foot.

Zoro allows Sanji to sulkily stomp through the undergrowth in the uphill woodlands for a while until he calms down. Or mostly calms down at least, only an idiot would ever assume that Sanji was completely calm and they were totally free from a screeching rant and a kick.

"I wonder how much longer it'll take Luffy and Robin to get here, or if Chopper is going to come too." Zoro says, a smartly neutral topic.

"There are sick people here, I'm stunned he's not run here on foot already." Sanji replies.

"Luffy knows the way here blindfolded. He'd be way better at getting to the bandit camp than me, I just know it's at the top." Zoro adds.

"Someone being able to navigate better than you, Zoro? Say it isn't so." Sanji gasps, presumably drowning under all of the layers of sarcasm he just put on there. Zoro bends down and scoops a pine cone off of the floor and maturely lobs it at the back of his husband's head. The next steep incline up the mountain goes very quickly with dodging each other's projectiles.

"So, how did you and Luffy meet then? I get that this isn't too far from your home but it's not like this is next door either." Sanji asks after their pinecone fight has abated.

"It's... a long story." Zoro hedges. His parents know the full version but most people only know the abridged version.

"Oh, yeah. I definitely have better things to do right now than listen to you answer the question that I asked." Sanji snarks at him and Zoro rolls his eyes. He may well have told Sanji the not entirely true but abridged version before, but he'll tell the real one now.

"I don't know how the whole prince thing goes in Baratie, but as soon as I was a competent swordsman and could ride and survive in the wild, I was allowed to go more or less anywhere I wanted. I had to study of course but my father wanted me to interact with my people, so I'd often ride out somewhere with Shanks on his way back to his crew and the sea and then come back on my own." Zoro explains.

"With your sense of direction?!" Sanji asks in horror.

"Shut up. There are signs about, and I could always tag along with other people if I wanted." Zoro argues. He doesn't say that his father occasionally sent knights out to find him and bring him back, often enough that it became a sort of trial for them.

"So you met Luffy one time when you were out on your own?" Sanji guesses.

"Yeah, I mean it was a town not too far from here. Further away I think but not too bad. There was a town run by this completely corrupt guy; he was attacking townspeople and overtaxing them. Things like that. It happens every so often but as a member of the royal family, it's my job to fix that whenever we see it. Luffy and I met at an execution." Zoro explains.

"Whose?" Sanji asks curiously.

"...Mine." Zoro mumbles.

"Holy shit, what?!" Sanji gasps and vault's Seafoam's back to get to Zoro's side.

"I didn't tell the guy who I was, and I made a bet that if I could outlast anything he'd do to me then he'd leave the people in the town alone. Part of it was going without food actually, which was pretty dumb of me but a local girl kept sneaking me this terrible food that she'd made herself. Seriously awful but she tried, you know?" Zoro explains. Even now he can taste that gross sugary rice, even if it was made with care, it still tasted bad.

It occurs to him that Sanji isn't saying anything and when he looks over at his husband the man is looking at him all misty-eyed and with a trembling lip.

"What?" Zoro asks.

"Nothing, I have... something in my eye. Go on." Sanji mumbles and looks sharply away.

"Luffy offered to free me because he'd heard about what I was doing and I refused. But Luffy had also heard that the corrupt leader knew who I was and was never intending on letting me win and wanted to execute me anyway. He could claim ignorance if anyone found out and people would have to stand by my dumbass bet and choice to lie about who I was, it wouldn't be treason. Anyway, he broke the deal by doing that so Luffy got me my swords and we broke out of there, kicked ass and removed him from power. We became friends on the way back and to thank him my father said that I could make him a knight if I wanted." Zoro explains calmly. He still feels stupid about his past self's choices, but it led to great things, because of that he can't truly say that he regrets it.

"And he said yes." Sanji nods.

"Eventually, after being told that there would be unlimited food in it for him and he'd be captain. Apparently, he thought that outranked my title, but it's not like I tell Luffy what to do most of the time. Eventually, we met Nami and then years later Robin." Zoro explains.

"So does he come back here often?" Sanji asks, looking around at the lush green forest. It's a stark contrast from the fields below.

"Not really. The leader of the bandits is a woman named Dadan. She basically raised Luffy and Ace after Garp dumped them here. But Luffy doesn't really see family like that, he doesn't think that you need to be near people to matter to them. Actually Shanks saved his life as a little kid and Luffy has this big thing about not seeing him until he feels he's good enough so he always tries to avoid him." Zoro explains with a smile. Luffy's disappearing acts are pretty famous, he's well known for throwing himself out of windows to avoid the man. It's lucky that Luffy bounces so well.

"Wait, I thought Luffy was related to Garp." Sanji says with a frown.

"He is. Garp is Luffy's grandfather." Zoro confirms.

"So... he just ditched Ace and Luffy on some bandit leader lady? Had they even met her before? And I thought you said that Ace and Luffy weren't related by blood." Sanji questions him with a frown.

"They're not. Well, they might be." Zoro says, also frowning now as well.

"How helpful." Sanji remarks.

"Look, Luffy's full name is Monkey D. Luffy, his father is Monkey D. Dragon and Garp's full name is Monkey D. Garp. With Ace, his name is Portgas D. Ace." Zoro explains. He doesn't go into how that isn't actually Ace's real name, both because it's not relevant but also because Ace may well fly across the country and punch him for mentioning it. A man's name should be his own choice.

"Your naming conventions are weird." Sanji sighs.

"The whole D part of the name does seem to be a family thing so they may be related by blood some way back but fuck if I know. Throughout history, people with that D in their name show up doing important and dangerous shit. All you need to know is that if someone introduces themselves and they're Something D. Something, they're fucking crazy. I mean, maybe in a good way like Luffy, Garp and Ace but still. Completely bonkers and unbelievably strong." Zoro explains.

"Noted. But my point was, why were Luffy and Ace brought up here and not with their parents?" Sanji asks and leads his horse around a large boulder.

"Well, Ace's parents are both dead and Luffy's father is... off somewhere? I know he's still alive but he just vanished off in some other country and we hear about him every now and then. Luffy doesn't care. And Garp was busy being one of my father's most trusted men." Zoro explains. It all seems perfectly reasonable to him but from Sanji's sigh and the shake of his head, Zoro would guess that Sanji doesn't feel the same.

"Just leap straight to bandits, ok. Well, it turned out fine anyway I guess. So my next question, you keep talking about this mountain like it's her territory. But it's still your country, isn't it? This is your mountain, right?" Sanji asks and scrambles up a steep incline with his horse. Zoro watches them and considers the way his father once put this to him.

"The bandits are strong and we value that, they're good warriors. They too recognise our strength and wisdom. The mountain, of course, belongs to my family but... only as long as we don't try to act like it does. You'd have to have a really small brain and really big ego to want to fight them for it." Zoro explains and he and his horse rush up the same incline that Sanji cleared.

"And I thought that kind of slippery logic was the sort of thing you accused my people of." Sanji says smugly and Zoro glares.

"I never said I liked it, but peace is better than war just for the sake of being honest. It's not like we never lie, we just try not to." Zoro protests and Sanji smiles affectionately at him.

"I'll make a practical man of you yet." He chuckles.

“So have you met this Dadan lady then?” Sanji asks curiously and Zoro nods.

“Well, what’s she like?” Sanji asks and scrambles up a steep incline.

Zoro purses his lips as he tries to think of a good way to describe Dadan, the woman who raised several utterly chaotic children and maintained a stranglehold on this entire mountain.

“She’s big, and she shouts a lot, and even though she loves Luffy, she’ll still punch him in the ear for doing something dumb. She’s a fearless leader, and I think she’s pretty kind hearted if you dig really deep.” Zoro explains.

“Huh, sounds like Zeff.” Sanji says thoughtfully.

Zoro considers that for a moment and is a little unsettled to find that it could well fit Zeff. He needs to get to know his father-in-law better.

“I should get to know Zeff more when I see him next. He’ll probably like me better when you’re not on the verge of death.” Zoro says to Sanji.

“I’ll try to arrange my near death experiences with that in mind then.” Sanji snorts and leads his horse along the narrow hillside path.

“That’s not funny.” Zoro says bitterly.

“Says you.” Sanji shrugs and Zoro groans. How is it possible to both love and hate someone this much?

“You sparred with Mihawk, do you think that Zeff would spar with me when we see him again?” Zoro asks, because asking that is better than leaping his horse and strangling Sanji. Just.

“You don’t have to spar with him just because I did with Mihawk; it’s not like that was my idea anyway. But… hm, he might. Just not in the kitchen. He knows how important this stuff is to Tsukians so he’d be more likely to fight you seriously than he does me.” Sanji answers.

“He doesn’t fight you seriously?” Zoro asks in horror. The path widens here, and he can stand next to Sanji and his horse to look at him in shock. It’s so insulting not to fight someone seriously, how can Sanji stand it?

“Hm, not really. We mostly just scuffle over small disagreements, a real fight is too destructive most of the time. He stopped properly combat training me about five years ago; I think I may have been a bad student.” Sanji says and visibly cringes a little at the words.

Zoro frowns and thinks of how overly emotional Sanji and Zeff’s verbal arguments are and how pissy Sanji can get when he’s tired and frustrated. The pair of them are pretty alike so that potentially is a very bad teaching relationship.

“Do you think I’d win?” Zoro asks curiously.

Sanji pauses and leans against his horse’s flank as he thinks, a frown of concentration deep on his face.

“I honestly don’t know. Before he lost his leg he was a formidable fighter and he’d done a little piracy of his own back then and was renowned for being a force to be reckoned with. But now he’s got one fake leg and doesn’t exactly practice much. But he can still kick clean through any wall, last time we squared up against each other for real I lost so badly and I’m pretty sure he can still out kick me in pure force. He’s not so agile anymore though and you are. I’m not sure, but I think it’d be pretty close whichever way it went.” Sanji finally concludes and Zoro can see the other man watching him closely, perhaps for signs of offence.

Zoro is not offended.

He didn’t realise that Zeff was so good, but likely Mihawk knew that and it’s probably part of the reason that he agreed. Their bloodline is made up of progressively better fighters and there’s no way that Mihawk would risk tainting it with weak blood and risking combat weak grandchildren. Of course, Sanji is a good fighter, perplexing with his fire skills as well, but Zoro hadn’t realised that Zeff could well be better. And to think he spent all that time there in the same building as the man and never tested him. He wishes that he could fight him right now.

“Just don’t demand a fight the moment you get through the palace doors, ok? Now come on, we’re going this way.” Sanji sighs deeply and leads his horse up the left fork of the path going up the hill. Zoro looks between the two equally good paths and scowls.

“How do you know it’s this way, you’ve never been here!” Zoro argues as he rushes to catch up to Sanji.

“We’re looking for bandits, right? Well, the trees on this path have arrows stuck in them still. I think this is the right way.” Sanji points out smugly and Zoro has to agree, at least in the privacy of his own head.

A silence forces its way between them and Zoro tries to run over a few different ways of bringing up Sanji’s dream again. It’s possible that he’ll be less defensive about it when it’s just the two of them. On the other hand, asking about it may well piss the temperamental prince off further. Should he push it or should he trust that if Sanji wants to talk about it, then he will?

If it were any other subject then Zoro wouldn’t feel this level of hesitation, but it’s about the death of a parent. A pain Zoro can’t possibly understand and dearly hopes that he never has to. What right does he have to intrude on that? He knows Sanji but he doesn’t own every inch of his mind and soul, he can’t command Sanji to do only what Zoro pleases. It’s not the same.

“Is it bothering you too?” Sanji asks from up ahead and Zoro’s back stiffens with worry.

“How everything up here is so green and lush and everything down there is dead? It’s not just unfair, it’s unnatural.” Sanji continues and Zoro almost sighs with relief.

“It could be dangerous.” Zoro says, willing to have this conversation at least.

“Not really, I’ve been looking. There’s no sign of poison or plague anywhere up here; we won’t get sick.” Sanji tells him, looking back over his shoulder to do so.

“I mean, a group of starving people down there looking up at this green and healthy mountain inhabited by lawless bandits.” Zoro amends. There’s a reason that their country hasn’t engaged in many big conflicts lately, supplying an army with food is hard and hungry people are angry people. And armed people, as almost everyone in this country is, are far worse when they’re angry. If the bandits weren’t so fearsome they may well have been stormed for supplies sooner.

“I think ‘lawless’ is a little harsh, don’t you?” A smooth voice says sweetly. Zoro looks up in alarm to see Robin and Luffy perched in a tree, looking down at them grinning.

“Holy shit!” Sanji yelps in alarm.

“Did you climb up there just to be dramatic?” Zoro asks incredulously, and Robin drops down with a dramatic swish of her skirts.

“Drama is always valuable.” Robin says tartly.

“The village is just up there around the corner; we could hear you two talking.” Luffy explains and drops down.

“How long have you been here?” Sanji asks in surprise.

“We arrived around dawn this morning. We left approximately forty hours after you, we couldn’t fool Mihawk for long I’m afraid. Indeed many of the hours that he was ‘fooled’ for he was asleep. He’s very sharp indeed.” Robin says with some approval.

“We rode here and on the outskirts of the direct route to this mountain Luffy encountered a giant sabre-toothed lion, which he fought spectacularly, and so the three of us rode here on that far faster. Our horses, a few guards, a carriage with supplies and another with diagnostic tools elected to go by road instead for some reason.” Robin explains.

“A… a giant what?” Sanji asks in confusion.

“Oh, Zoro. Before I forget, your father asked me to give you this when I saw you.” Luffy says over Robin quietly explaining what a giant sabre-toothed lion is. Luffy reaches into his vest and pulls out a folded sheet of fine parchment. In the centre of the fold where the paper overlaps, there is his father’s wax seal, a deep amethyst purple wax with gold flecks and their family crest in it.

A letter, from Mihawk to him.

Zoro holds it in his hands, the reigns of his horse looped over his elbow. His father knows that he snuck out, disobeyed his direct orders and lied to him through his nakama.

“Your other father told me to give you this as well, but to read it after Mihawk’s one.” Robin adds, handing him another letter. This one is folded into a paper square, the kind of silly origami that Shanks had taught him when he was little, you could flick this clear across the table and play games with it.

He looks again at Mihawk’s sealed letter, and dread fills him. It’s the hot and unpleasant feel of guilt and shame, the kind he used to get as a small boy when he played too rowdily in the castle in areas he had been told not to and accidentally broke something. He was in trouble, and now he just had to wait to find out how badly in trouble he was. How is it that he is an adult, but he feels just the same?

“Just open it Zoro, the waiting will be way worse than anything he’ll say.” Sanji assures him.

Zoro thinks that Sanji doesn’t know Mihawk very well if he believes that.

Still, he slides his thumb under the seal which comes free cleanly. He opens and unfolds the letter and is dismayed to find out that it is two sheets of paper.

 _To Roronoa Zoro, son of_ Dracule _Roronoa Mihawk, grandson of-_

This goes on for some time. It practically lists every person in Zoro’s direct family line! He wonders if Mihawk knows all of that off the top of his head or if he had to go to the reference section of the library for this letter.

_You have lied to me and betrayed my trust._

Zoro feels like he might throw up.

_I explicitly ordered you to stay in the castle whilst this matter was cleared up suitably by people who were perfectly capable of doing so. I reasoned with you and still you disobeyed, putting your own life at risk as well as the life of your husband. I had thought that I need not remind you that the health and wealth of our country is directly tied to that of your betrothed and yet you act foolishly and recklessly._

_I do not agree with your actions._

Zoro closes his eyes. Maybe he can be a bandit and live in the woods, that sounds nice. He returns to reading.

_However,_

Zoro’s eyes widen. However? There’s a however after that scathing beginning?

_However, I do not rule this country in the same manner that my predecessor did and I know that you will be different from me. I am sure that in my youth some of my own actions may have been considered reckless by some. I can only hope that your choices here reflect the values that you have learned and are of sound judgement, rather than some teenaged rebellion. If it was the latter I would be, for the first time, disappointed in you._

_You are an intelligent and sensible young man, and I hope to see you soon and unharmed. When you return I shall expect you to inform me on everything that has happened and all of your choices since I saw you last._

_Sincerely,_   
_Your father,_   
_Mihawk_

Zoro squints suspiciously at the letter. Did… did two different people write that? Maybe he should read his Dad’s letter next.

_Hey Zoro,_

_I leave the castle for two days to chase down leads on this witch and come back to find Mihawk completely losing his shit over you. So, he’s writing you an angry letter, or several I guess because this seems to be his third draft already. All I gotta say is, don’t listen to him._

_When he was younger he did dumb shit all the time; he snuck out to see me whenever he could. We’d meet up in a bar and then fight anyone else in the bar for fun, I mean, I may have started those fights but he liked ‘em._

_I love you Zoro, I probably won’t be there when you get back so I’ll either see you next time you’re home or I may find you in Baratie. We’ll see where the sea takes me._

_Love you,_   
_Shanks_

_P.s. Your father just asked me how he should end a formal letter to you. I told him to go with ‘yours sincerely and kindest regards’ please tell me he did! That’s hilarious! If he did then I owe you a drink because that’s brilliant._

Zoro squints at the two letters and tries to figure out what the hell just happened. So neither of his parents are angry at him? Or Mihawk might be but if he is then it’s just temporary and he used to do the same kind of things before so he understands or…?

“Did you break your brain or something?” Sanji eventually asks, and Zoro snaps out of it.

“Uhh, no. My family is weird.” Zoro answers.

“You’re weird.” Sanji responds immediately.

“Hm, I hate to break it to you Zoro, but you but are weird.” Robin agrees, the traitor.

"So are you in trouble or what?" Sanji asks curiously, and Zoro can see genuine compassion in Sanji's eyes, so he knows that he's only half screwing with him about this.

"I don't think so. He's not happy by any means, but I don't think I'm in trouble." Zoro says uncertainly. He could well be in trouble for the lying part, but Mihawk didn't exactly give him much choice.

"Great! Let's get going then. I know everyone wants to meet Sanji and you're always welcome here Zoro." Luffy says warmly and leads the way. He accidentally sets off a trap on their way into the bandit camp, but Luffy simply catches the arrow clean out of the air as if it was nothing. Zoro supposes he grew up here after all.

"How was your journey Sanji, uneventful I hope?" Robin asks cordially as they enter the outskirts of the camp.

The camp itself is a series of small and squat buildings, some of which have gained extra floors through merging with treehouses. Up above them in the trees are rope bridges, vine swings and hidden weapons caches. Zoro knows from prior experience that most of those were set there by Luffy, Ace and their other brother Sabo who Zoro has never actually met. Sanji is protesting to Robin that people don't constantly try to kill him, thank you very much, when he notices the appearance of the camp. The blond goes starry-eyed immediately and Zoro starts to see the resemblance of the buildings with tree houses to Sanji's own palace which is partially inside a giant tree.

"It's so lovely!" Sanji says in delight.

"It is certainly very lively I've found. Plenty of drinking and carousing to go around at night." Robin nods sagely.

The people are milling about and occasionally looking at them hardly look like Baratians though. They're dark-skinned like Zoro, only more so from spending all their days outside. They're dirt scuffed and their clothes are ragged or stitched together from separate articles of clothing. By contrast, the Baratians seem to pride themselves in always showing their best face to the outside world, even if it makes them look weaker to Tsukian eyes. Sanji couldn't stand out more if he tried. Actually, he probably could and Zoro won't challenge him to that, who knows what levels of finery Sanji can reach if goaded to?

A large woman lumbers out of a building and stares them down. She has the kind of body that looks like it's constructed with beer barrels and cowhide with a good deal of fat between the two. Top it all off with a mess of ginger hair, and she certainly is a striking kind of lady. Both visually and literally, Zoro has seen Dadan smack Shanks clean across the ear before. She is not a timid lady.

"Oi! Luffy, what're you doing over there? Who's that? Oh, hello, Prince Zoro." Dadan says with a half-hearted nod.

"Dadan." Zoro nods respectfully.

"Hello, I am Prince Sanji, I am very pleased to meet you." Sanji says politely and bows more than he needs to. He's still not completely got the hang of measuring that.

"You're the foreign prince Luffy was telling me about? You survived getting your throat cut and then kicked your attacker through several trees so hard he caught on fire? A little slip of a thing like you?" Dadan snorts.

Zoro scowls at Luffy, did he absolutely have to tell her that? He knows that Sanji is still... touchy about that subject.

Sanji squints at Dadan for a moment and then grins, something sinister and sly. He tilts his head as he does it, making the large scar visible in ways that he usually avoids.

"Nothing wrong with being underestimated, people don't do it twice." Sanji says smoothly.

Dadan bursts into uproarious laughter and slaps her knee in amusement.

"Oh, I like you, boy. What was your name again?" Dadan roars in amusement and Sanji beams.

"It's Sanji." He repeats.

"Sanji," Dadan tries, rolling the word around in her mouth, "let me show you around here. Get you something to eat and drink too. I want to hear all about where you're from and if Luffy as been minding any of the manners that I drummed into his rubber skull."

"What manners?" Robin whispers to Zoro and Zoro has to restrain himself from laughing audibly.

Dadan leads Sanji away with a large hand on his back and enthusiastically gestures to everything of note that they pass as Sanji is brightly keeping up the conversation. Perhaps she is just like Zeff after all.

"They seem to get along like a house on fire." Robin notes.

"Why do people say that's a positive thing again?" Zoro asks warily, watching Dadan burst out laughing again. He's always felt that both bandits, pirates and Baratians were weird, although all for different reasons. It looks like it's turning out that the three may have more in common than he'd first thought.

He finds himself thinking of Shanks and his unusual ancestry, it seems like he's from everywhere. Of course, that means that Zoro is too in a way. Zoro wonders if he has any Baratian in him. Actually he'd like some... no, no, he's not going to finish that thought.

Zoro takes his horse and Sanji's horse and ties them up with food and water in reach, they deserve a rest. Robin follows him and talks of their speedy journey. Eventually she gets to the point that she's been avoiding.

"It was night time when we passed the nearby village in the distance so I couldn't see how bad it was. What state are they in?" Robin asks.

"Everything is dead, every single plant. The others have figured out that it has to be some kind of poison applied to the soil somehow, it's also got into the river water so there's no fish and the water is toxic to drink. It's a miracle it's not reached the well water yet. Sanji isn't sure how it's done yet but I think the group are leaning towards magic or something like it as a cause." Zoro explains and Robin's face falls.

"That's exceedingly troubling to hear. What brought you two up here then?" Robin asks.

"Hoping for more supplies and any extra information we can get. Sanji says there's no way he can bring those crops back, his hope is to fix this before they lose another growing season. They might have to resettle." Zoro whispers quietly.

"That won't be a popular choice." Robin says grimly.

"Well, it's better than starving to death." Zoro says unhappily.

Zoro looks for Sanji only to see that he's already sitting down by a fireside with Dadan explain much the same kind of thing as Zoro had just been explaining to Robin, only in more detail. Luffy is listening with a frown and so Robin and Zoro go to join them.

"So magic or devil's fruit." Dadan concludes at the end of Sanji's speech.

"That's the thinking. Can you tell me if your understanding of what's been happening matches up with the timeline they gave us? Any information at all is useful." Sanji says and Dadan rubs her large chin thoughtfully.

"We don't exactly patrol the roads but we make note of any encounters we get, strange things like foreigners or large groups of people. We also note all the trades we made with people, we've been getting a lot of trades for food from that place. We don't have an outrageously large amount, but we had enough to trade with them." Dadan explains.

"That'd be incredibly helpful. I was hoping that I might be able to ask you for another favour while we're here." Sanji asks carefully, eyeing the larger woman.

"Oh?" Dadan says curiously.

"Your mountain is very large and though the land isn't really suitable for farming I'd like your permission to set up a few small patches in the spring in case the fields fail again. But before then I'd like your permission to set up something else." Sanji says slyly.

"What's that?" Dadan asks.

"A trap. I tell everyone that I'm planting fields in the mountain and I leave one very visibly by the roadside with transplanted crops in it. If this poison on the fields has to be re-done then that person won't be able to resist poisoning this one too. We keep a guard hidden and watch. Potentially anyone who is doing this could undo it, so catching them is absolutely needed." Sanji explains.

"And if you catch this person, what will you do? Anyone who can do that to plants is going to be able to do it to people too." Dadan points out.

"This is the worst kind of crime in Baratie, ma'am. There are three Baratians in our party who are itching to put this fucker to justice, two of which are long ranged fighters too. One of my nakama can also shoot lightning at will We don't even have to touch them to beat them. I think we'll be fine." Sanji says with an idle wave of his hand.

"You're assuming that it's not any of us." Dadan points out.

"I think it's unlikely." Sanji says slowly.

"Oh, you have some counter plan for that, too? You are a cunning boy indeed. You know, I've never met a Baratian before but I think I like you." Dadan laughs and slaps Sanji sharply on the back.

"I'm happy to hear that. This place is far more organised than I had imagined, I'm very impressed." Sanji tells her with warmth in his voice and a smile on his face.

"Ooh-hoo I bet those fancy castle folks wouldn't like to see you complimenting the likes of me!" Dadan roars in amusement.

Sanji snorts dismissively and Dadan laughs even louder.

"Sanji has taken to confusing and upsetting people on occasion, this is true." Robin confirms.

"Excellent. Which reminds me, next time any of you see Garp you kick him in the balls and tell him to come see me. We need to have WORDS about his family." Dadan says ominously.

"I'm his family, what words are you gonna have with him?" Luffy demands, perking up.

"None of your concern, kid." Dadan says with a shake of her head.

"How is it not my concern if it's my family?" Luffy reasons.

Dadan looks uncomfortable, and her eyes roam over the group crowded around her, Sanji, Zoro, Robin and Luffy. She bites her thumbnail for a moment and then seems to deflate.

"Luffy, the three of you were my boys too. That doesn't change just 'cause you've gone and made yourselves other people's problems. But Garp's boy is making trouble across the sea and people ain't happy, to make it worse Sabo's over there in the thick of it too. Garp should be fixing this, not pretending like it ain't his problem." Dadan says sternly.

"Is that where Sabo is now? Can't you be more specific than 'across the sea'?" Luffy asks with a frown.

Zoro's brain is churning over that phrasing, translating it from one language to another and his mind runs up against the obvious conclusion. Those were the words from Sanji's dream, it sounded a little clunky in Baratian but is far smoother in Tsukian.

"Could it be connected?" Sanji wonders aloud.

"What do you mean?" Dadan asks, squinting at Sanji suspiciously.

"I mean that I've been wondering why someone would go to all this trouble just to screw over one small village. But if people abroad are pissed off at Luffy's father then maybe they'd strike at the place closest to his family. And... and if people were trying to take down this whole country, then a revolution started by famine is an easy way to do it." Sanji muses.

"Yeah but my father doesn't care about me, this place shouldn't be special and even if it was then it'd be here not down there that was sick." Luffy argues.

"Your brother cares about you and this place, though, doesn't he?" Zoro reasons.

"Okay, but... no one is gonna starve. Not now that Sanji is here." Luffy says and Sanji smiles a little at Luffy's show of confidence in him.

"As much as I hate to bring up a sore point, Sanji was very nearly not here. How many people have tried to kill you now?" Robin asks, and Sanji scowls.

"Just two, don't make a big deal out of it." Sanji mumbles unhappily.

"But it nearly was a big deal, we nearly ended up with war. And... and that would have given us a famine for sure." Zoro says as a sick feeling coils in his stomach.

"So this isn't one shitty run of luck then, it's connected. With Kalifa and Kaku in the castle that would give whomever they're reporting to solid information on Garp, Luffy and me." Sanji says grimly.

"This sounds interesting and I don't like interesting. I also don't like people trying to outmanoeuvre me, we'll do whatever we can to keep those people fed and help you free that town of their sickness. There's good people down there and I'm not letting them be someone else's pawn." Dadan says firmly and gets up from the fireside to walk off. She lumbers up to some of the other bandits and starts barking out orders for supplies to be gathered and other such things. Sanji has, it seems, secured an ally.

Zoro has bigger problems right now, ones that Sanji is far too conveniently ignoring.

"Sanji, you can't tell me that you aren't noticing the connection here." Zoro says quietly, reaching for his husband's hand.

"Didn't we just have a big conversation about that?" Sanji says with a frown.

"I meant, the connection with your dream. 'A poisoned fruit from across the sea'? Can't you see the connection there? The last part was directly quoted!" Zoro insists.

"It means nothing, it was just a dream." Sanji hisses and pulls his hand back.

"Really? And you getting that message about someone who has come over here from across the sea to poison these fields in some act of subtle war is a coincidence? And the specification of it being a fruit wouldn't be helpful at all when you're here trying to work out if this is witchcraft of devil's fruit powers. You don't think that's relevant?" Zoro presses.

"I am not a witch! My mother is dead, and my father is alive, the dream meant nothing now drop it!" Sanji snarls and leaps up from the fireside and stalks off to his horse.

"Care to let us in on what that was about?" Robin asks slowly.

"I don't think I've seen him that angry at someone since Kaku. What happened since we saw you last?" Luffy notes, looking at Sanji's retreating form.

Zoro looks at his two nakama, he needs their advice and they're Sanji's nakama too. They can't be expected to help him unless they know what's wrong.

"Well, Sanji had this dream." Zoro begins and he slowly fills them in on every detail, including all of Nami's theories. He doesn't know what all this means or if he wants Sanji to actually be a witch or not, but right now he'd rather have information on why everything is happening than continuing to live in the dark.

 


End file.
